- Where
- Réunion National Park, western Indian Ocean
a French overseas department - Coordinates
- 21.0700° S, 55.4200° E
- Biome
- Tropical montane forest inside a volcanic cirque, ramparts to c. 1,000 m
- Getting in
- On foot or by helicopter. No road has ever been built
- The îlets
- 9–10 hamlets, c. 800 residents in total
- Status
- UNESCO World Heritage, 2010, within a national park founded 2007
- Best visited
- September–November, April–May; avoid cyclone season
Walked down into a valley that has no road, past a sign that did not say so because everyone here already knows. Tin roofs, red earth, cliffs going up further than I could tilt my head. Somebody's shopping came in on a rope under a helicopter while I ate. The people who first came here chose it because it could not be reached, and that is still true, and now it is the reason anyone comes.
The short answer
The Cirque de Mafate is a natural amphitheatre on the island of Réunion, in the western Indian Ocean, formed by the collapse and erosion of the extinct volcano Piton des Neiges. It is enclosed on all sides by cliffs — locally called remparts — of up to about a thousand metres, broken only by the gorge of the Rivière des Galets. Roughly eight hundred people live inside it, in nine or ten hamlets known as îlets. There is no road, and there never has been. Everything and everyone arrives on foot or by helicopter. The cirque has been part of a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2010, and lies within the core zone of Réunion National Park, created in 2007.
Why it's worth knowing
Most remote places are remote by accident — too far, too high, too cold, and nobody got round to building the road. Mafate is remote on purpose, twice over, for two completely different reasons three centuries apart.
The first reason was escape. Réunion — then Bourbon — was a slave colony, and people who escaped were called marrons, from the Spanish cimarrón. They went up. The island's interior is a ruin of collapsed volcano, and the cirques are the most defensible ground in the Indian Ocean: enclosed by vertical rock, entered through a single river gorge, invisible from the coast. Communities formed there under their own leaders. The cirque is named for one of them.
The second reason is a decision. Réunion is a French department with motorways, university hospitals and a European electricity grid — and a road into Mafate is entirely buildable. It has not been built. The cirque sits inside the core of a national park, its land is publicly owned and administered by the Office national des forêts, and residents hold inexpensive concessions rather than freehold. The French state instead runs a helicopter service that brings in supplies and takes out refuse.
So Mafate is that rare thing: a place whose isolation is now a public policy. Eight hundred people live a life that is logistically absurd and socially ordinary — with shops, a school, nurses on rotation, solar panels and mobile signal — inside a landscape that once existed, for the people who lived here, as the only ground on the island where they were free.
The field notes
The man the valley is named for
Mafate was a maroon leader, of Malagasy origin, who led a community of escaped people inside the cirque. His name is generally translated from Malagasy as he who kills or the one who causes death. Accounts drawing on J. V. Payet's Histoire de l'esclavage à l'île Bourbon describe maroon chiefs adopting war names — Mafate alongside Tsilaos, the unconquerable — and record that Mafate was hunted down and killed by the slave-hunter François Mussard in 1751.
Not every account agrees on what the name refers to. The travel publication Africa Geographic attributes the Malagasy root mahafaty to the difficulty of reaching the cirque rather than to a person. Both readings survive in circulation, and they are not quite compatible: one makes the name a description of terrain, the other a man's chosen name that the terrain later inherited.
What is not disputed is that the valley is the enduring symbol of marronnage on Réunion, and that the map still carries the maroons' names. Cimendef, Anchaing, Marla, Mafate — these are ridges, peaks and settlements named for people who ran.
A collapse, an erosion, and an argument about when
The three cirques — Mafate, Cilaos and Salazie — radiate from the summit of Piton des Neiges at roughly 120 degrees to one another, like the lobes of a clover. Piton des Neiges is an extinct shield volcano and the highest point in the Indian Ocean, given variously as 3,069, 3,070 or 3,071 metres.
How the cirques formed is settled in outline and unsettled in detail. Current descriptions combine two processes: gravitational collapse and debris avalanches on the flanks of the volcano, followed by extraordinary erosion — Réunion's interior is among the wettest places on Earth, and the rock is young basalt.
The dating is where accounts diverge sharply. The official tourism body, Île de la Réunion Tourisme, states that the cirques formed during the collapse of the central caldera of Piton des Neiges around 300,000 years ago. Other published accounts, including Africa Geographic, give roughly three million years for the collapse of the magma chamber. That is a factor of ten, and it is not a rounding difference — it reflects whether one is dating the volcano's dismantling as a whole or a specific caldera event within it. A reader who wants a single number will not find agreement, and this entry does not manufacture one.
Living in a place with no road
The practical arrangements are the interesting part.
There is no mains electricity. Households generate their own with solar panels and battery storage, with diesel generators as backup — and the diesel has to be flown in, which makes it expensive enough to be a last resort.
There is no permanent medical facility. Dispensaries are staffed by nurses on rotation, with scheduled visits by a physician. Anything urgent is a helicopter evacuation. There is no gendarmerie station.
Schooling exists but stops early. The first school in the cirque was built at Roche Plate in 1953; the school at Marla reopened in 2005 with six pupils after closing for insufficient enrolment. There is no secondary or higher education inside the cirque, which means that at a certain age, children leave.
The population is small and moving. Marla, the highest hamlet at around 1,600 metres, takes its name from the Malagasy marolahy — many people — and once held several hundred. It now holds around twenty. Aurère, at about 930 metres, has roughly ninety.
And yet there are shops. There are gîtes that will cook you dinner. There is a helicopter overhead most days, carrying groceries in a net.
- Walk in from the Col des Bœufs, which is the kind one, and out via Maïdo, which is not.
- Stay in an îlet overnight rather than turning round. The valley is a different place after the day-walkers leave.
- Watch a supply drop. Someone's week arrives on a rope.
- Learn which peaks are named for people, and then look at them again.
- Sit at Maïdo at first light and see the whole thing at once, which is the only way to see the whole thing at all.
A cargo net, empty, folded beside a hamlet's landing circle. Every gas bottle, sack of rice, roll of roofing tin and crate of beer in Mafate arrived under one of these, and every bag of refuse leaves the same way. The nets sit stacked in the îlets between rotations like laundry waiting to go out.
Tally, in the marginThe most ordinary object in the valley and the reason the valley works. I would put it in a museum. They would laugh at me.
Getting there
Réunion is a French department in the Indian Ocean, about 700 km east of Madagascar, with direct flights from Paris and connections from Mauritius and South Africa. Roland Garros airport is on the north coast. From there everything is ordinary European infrastructure — hire cars, motorways, supermarkets — until the moment it stops.
On foot is how nearly everyone arrives. The gentlest entry is from the Col des Bœufs, on the Salazie side, where a car park sits close to the pass and the walk in to La Nouvelle is short by Mafate standards. The most punishing is from the Maïdo viewpoint at about 2,200 metres, which drops roughly a thousand metres to Roche Plate — about two hours down, and close to twice that coming back up. From Cilaos, the Col du Taïbit crosses at 2,142 metres into Marla. The Rivière des Galets gorge is the only route that does not involve a pass, and it is long.
By helicopter is the other option: sightseeing flights run from Saint-Gilles and Saint-Pierre, typically fifteen minutes over the cirque. Helicopters also serve the îlets, but the supply and medical services are not a taxi.
Sleeping is in gîtes — small guesthouses in the hamlets, usually with a communal dinner. They book up, particularly in the French school holidays, and the number of beds in any given îlet is small.
Practical notes. Carry several litres of water; the descents are hot and shadeless and the shops are not where you want them. Cyclone season runs roughly January to March. There is no ATM and card acceptance is patchy. Trails are maintained by the ONF and clearly signed, but the gradients are severe — this is a walking destination with real physical demands, not a stroll.
Mark this place
Common questions
Why are there no roads in the Cirque de Mafate?
No road has ever been built into Mafate because of its terrain and, more recently, its legal protection. The cirque is enclosed by cliffs of up to about 1,000 metres and opens only through the Rivière des Galets gorge. Since 2007 it has lain within the core zone of Réunion National Park, and the land is publicly owned and managed by the Office national des forêts, making a future road very unlikely.
How do people in Mafate get their supplies?
Everything arrives on foot or by helicopter. The French authorities run a helicopter service that delivers supplies to the hamlets and removes refuse. Diesel for backup generators is flown in, which makes it costly enough that households rely mainly on solar panels with battery storage.
How many people live in the Cirque de Mafate?
Published figures cluster around 800 residents, with some sources giving a little under 900, spread across nine or ten hamlets called îlets. Individual settlements are tiny: Aurère has around ninety people, and Marla — once home to several hundred — has around twenty.
Who was Mafate?
Mafate was a maroon leader of Malagasy origin who led a community of escaped enslaved people inside the cirque, and who gave it his name. Accounts drawing on J. V. Payet's history of slavery on Bourbon record that he was killed by the slave-hunter François Mussard in 1751. His name is generally translated from Malagasy as he who kills, though some accounts attribute that meaning to the terrain rather than to the man.
How was the Cirque de Mafate formed?
Mafate is one of three cirques formed by the dismantling of Piton des Neiges, an extinct shield volcano and the highest point in the Indian Ocean at around 3,070 metres. Current accounts combine gravitational collapse and debris avalanches with extremely heavy erosion. Dating differs substantially between sources: Île de la Réunion Tourisme gives about 300,000 years, while other published accounts give roughly three million.
How hard is the walk into Mafate?
It is demanding. The descent from the Maïdo viewpoint drops about 1,000 metres to Roche Plate, taking around two hours downhill and close to twice that on the return. The Col des Bœufs on the Salazie side is the least strenuous entry. Trails are maintained and signed by the Office national des forêts, but gradients are severe and water is scarce on the descents.
Is there a school in the Cirque de Mafate?
Yes, but only primary education. The first school in the cirque opened at Roche Plate in 1953, and the school at Marla reopened in 2005 with six pupils after closing for low enrolment. There is no secondary or higher education inside the cirque.
Is Mafate a UNESCO World Heritage site?
Yes. Mafate was inscribed in 2010 as part of the Pitons, cirques and remparts of Réunion Island, together with the island's other two cirques and its volcanic peaks and ramparts. The site lies within Réunion National Park, established in 2007.