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The extinction of the dodo, within 80 years of its discovery, made man realise for the first time that he could induce the extinction of plants and animals
The oldest race course in the Southern Hemisphere is found at Port-Louis, namely Champ de Mars. It was built in 1812. The Mauritius Turf Club, is the second oldest in the world, after the British Jockey Club
Mauritius was the third country where golf was played after UK and India. Mauritius Gymkhana Golf Club, is the oldest golf club in the Southern Hemisphere, and the fourth oldest golf course in the world (1844).
Le Morne Cultural Landscape, a rugged mountain that juts into the Indian Ocean in the southwest of Mauritius was used as a shelter by runaway slaves, maroons, through the 18th and early years of the 19th centuries. Protected by the mountain’s isolated, wooded and almost inaccessible cliffs, the escaped slaves formed small settlements in the caves and on the summit of Le Morne. The oral traditions associated with the maroons, have made Le Morne a symbol of the slaves’ fight for freedom, their suffering, and their sacrifice, all of which have relevance to the countries from which the slaves came - the African mainland, Madagascar, India, and South-east Asia. Indeed, Mauritius, an important stopover in the eastern slave trade, also came to be known as the “Maroon republic” because of the large number of escaped slaves who lived in Le Morne.
The Aapravasi Ghat Immigration Depot is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is the only surviving remnant of an immigration depot typical of depots established in the second half of the nineteenth century to welcome indentured labourers.
Most Mauritians trace the arrival of their forbears from this site, which welcomed over half a million immigrants between 1834 and the 1920s. It holds immense symbolical value for Mauritians and the official commemoration of the arrival of indentured labourers is held at this site every 2nd of November.
The indenture system became the seat of the Great Experiment whereby the British would try to show the world that the labour of free men and women rather than slave labour would be more effective. Because the experiment proved to be successful in British terms, it was replicated in other British colonies as well as in French, Dutch and Spanish colonies. Over two million people were eventually transported to the colonies from Asia and Africa.
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