Isla San Lorenzo
| Isla San Lorenzo | ||
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| Waters | Pacific Ocean | |
| Geographical location | 12 ° 5 ′ 0 ″ S , 77 ° 13 ′ 0 ″ W | |
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| length | 8 kilometers | |
| width | 2 km | |
| surface | 17.6 km² | |
| Highest elevation | Cerro La Milla 426.7 m |
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The San Lorenzo Island is an island containing 3.8 km off the port city of Callao in Peru in the Pacific Ocean located. With an area of 16.48 km² and an extension of 2.9 kilometers wide and 8.3 kilometers in length, it is the largest island in Peru. The island of El Frontón is 800 meters southeast .
history
Since Isla San Lorenzo has no fresh water sources, it has never been permanently settled. However, it was often visited by the inhabitants of pre-Hispanic Peru, who used the island as a cemetery, as the sea islands had a mythological meaning.
During the colonial period, the island was a base for English and Dutch pirates who regularly raided Callao .
In 1866 the island was occupied by Spain and used as a base in the fight against Peru. This is where the Spanish ships were repaired and the dead buried before Spain withdrew from the Peruvian coast.
In the early 1990s, during the time of terrorism in Peru, the Peruvian naval base on the island temporarily served as a prison for the members of the Sendero Luminoso until maximum security prisons were established in the interior.
For a long time there have been plans to artificially enlarge the island's land area, a submarine tunnel system to connect with the mainland and an artificial diversion of the coastal ocean currents ("MEGATERMINAL MULTIMODAL ISLA SAN LORENZO"). The technical planning and the search for investors had already been completed, but no political decision was made. This project has not been discussed for several years.