São Tomé is 50 km long and 32 km wide and the more mountainous of the two islands. Its peaks reach 2,024 metres. Príncipe is about 30 km long and 6 km wide. Swift streams radiating down the mountains through lush forest and cropland to the sea cross both islands. The equator lies immediately south of São Tomé Island, passing through an islet named Ilha das Rolas.
An island country in the Gulf of Guinea off western Africa. Probably uninhabited at the time of European discovery in 1471, the islands were settled (1483) by the Portuguese, who held them, except for a period of Dutch rule in the 17-th century, until they gained full independence in 1975. São Tomé is the capital. Population: ca. 170,000.
