The Salvation's Islands, or Îles du Salut, got their name after they had become the saving land for French missionaries. They came to the islands to avoid the plague on the mainland.

It is a group of volcanic islands off the coast of French Guiana in the Atlantic ocean, 14 kilometers north of Kourou.

Initially, they were called the Triangular Islands (due to their location), later - the Devil's Islands because of the strong sea currents that made it difficult to access them.

From north to south are Devil's Island, Royale Island, and Saint-Joseph Island.

All three islands are operated by the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES): they are strategic sites as they are located under the trajectory of the launchers.

Since 1852, the islands have been part of a notorious colony reserved for only the most violent criminals of France. The main part of the penal colony was a labor camp located along the border with Dutch Guiana.

Royale Island, the largest in the archipelago, housed the headquarters of a former prison and a canteen that was later transformed into a colorful hotel. On St. Joseph Island, there were buildings with single cells. The smallest of the three islands, Devil's Island, is the most inaccessible. It was almost impossible to escape from it not only because of the powerful currents: sharks were waiting for the prisoners in the waters. Only a few prisoners managed to escape.

Today, you can see the ruins of buildings surrounded by dense vegetation, and new "colonies" - parrots and turtles - live among the palm trees on the coast.

Due to the difficult accessibility, tourism on the island is not developed. Nevertheless, more than 50 thousand tourists come there annually. Devil's Island is also known in connection with the Dreyfus affair - the false accusation of officer Alfred Dreyfus of high treason. The colony had a particularly harsh regime, prisoner violence against other prisoners was common, many died of tropical diseases, and a small number of survivors and those who returned to France told horrors that terrified potential criminals. The system operated until the middle of the XX century: the colony ceased to exist in 1953.