Head boulder
9 m across.
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Pieter Both is the second-highest mountain in Mauritius at 820 metres, just eight metres short of the island's highest peak, in the Moka Range about 7 km east of the capital, Port Louis, in a straight line. It is named after Pieter Both, the first Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, who drowned off Mauritius in 1615. The mountain's best-known feature is the huge boulder on its summit, about nine metres across, which resembles a human head. The first ascent was made on 7 September 1832. A palm now counted among the rarest in the world was once a common sight on this mountain. The slender summit rises like a sharp rock tower above green slopes and sugar cane fields, crowned by the round boulder like a head on a narrow neck, clearly visible from much of the north of the island. The jagged peaks of the Moka Range surround it. Most visitors admire the mountain from the surrounding roads and fields. Climbing it takes about an hour along the main ridge, a mildly difficult and exposed scramble where a rope is advised, and iron spikes fixed to the top boulder help climbers reach its flat summit.
9 m across.
Jagged peaks.
At the foot.
Moka Range, east of Port Louis, Mauritius
A moderate, exposed scramble; a rope is advised.
Much of the north of the island.