Kerguelen Arch

The Kerguelen Arch is a former natural arch of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. The arch collapsed between 1908 and 1913. It is located on the littoral zone on the cape between Baie de l'Oiseau and Baie de la Dauphine, North of the Loranchet Peninsula on the island of Grande Terre, main island of the Kerguelen archipelago. It is one of the best-known structures of the era, and its twin pillars are depicted of numerous postage stamps of the TAAF.

Baie de l'Oiseau and the Kerguelen Arch (centre) during the ceremonies held on the aviso Eure (left) on 2 January 1893.
The twin pillars of the now-collapsed Kerguelen Arch, photographed in 2008.

In literature

Jean-Paul Kauffmann wrote a book about the search for the Kerguelen Arch and Port-Christmas after he returned from a three-year captivity during the Lebanon hostage crisis.[1]

The sixth volume of the comic Prométhée, by Christophe Bec and Stefano Raffaele, published in June 2012, depicts a Kerguelen Arch mysteriously found still standing in 2019, over a century after its collapse.

Notes and references
  1. L'Arche des Kerguelen, Voyage aux îles de la Désolation, Jean-Paul Kauffmann, éditions Flammarion, 1992, ISBN 2-7103-2464-4.

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