Mauritius and Reunion are both volcanic islands. Mauritius is an old island, where erosion has levelled the calderas and created a plateau which contains a large part of the population. Reunion is a young island and some calderas are still inaccessible by road, although there are small villages scattered about inside the valleys.
A well-vegetated crater on Mauritius 1776
One of the Reunion calderas was filled with small particles from a later eruption, creating a black desert 1777
Hikers visiting an eruption site within one of the calderas 1778
The site of the most recent eruption of the Reunion volcano 1779