Lelepa (or Lélépa) is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in the southwestern Pacific island nation of

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

. It is located off the northwest coast of the island of

Efate Efate (french: Éfaté) is an island in the Pacific Ocean which is part of the Shefa Province in Vanuatu. It is also known as Île Vate. Geography It is the most populous (approx. 66,000) island in Vanuatu. Efate's land area of makes it Vanu ...

Geography

Lelepa has a length of about five kilometres in north-south direction and an area of 160 hectares. The highest point is Mt. Tifit (202 m). The population of Lelepa is about 500 people. The largest town on the island Natapao (pop. 350), is located on the southern edge of the island. At the northern end of the island lies the village Lelo. On the island there is a school, a kindergarten and two churches ( Presbyterian Church and

Seventh-day Adventists The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and i ...

). Together with the neighbouring islands Moso and Efate, Lelepa forms the natural harbor Havannah Harbour, named after the British ship ''HMS Havannah'' that twice anchored there in 1849-50. The local language is Lelepa language, spoken by about 400 people. It is sometimes considered a dialect of South Efate language.

Fele's Cave

On the southwestern side of the island is Fels Cave. The name ''Falesa'' denotes a cave in the Nakanamanga language, ''Fels'' or ''Feles'' are local dialect variants. Within the cave, there are many rock drawings, up to 3000 years old rock. Since 2008, the cave has been part of Chief Roi Mata's Domain, which was designated a

UNESCO World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

. According to legend, the principal chief Roi Mata died in this cave, towards the end of the sixteenth century. From the entrance, there is a direct view of Eretoka, where he was buried. In other legends the cave was the residence of the first carrier of the title Chief Roi Mata. Fels Cave, at an elevation of 22 metres, opens from a six metre high entrance to a height of 35 metres. Its diameter is about 50 metres, with an approximately circular floor plan. The surrounding rock, locally called ''fta'', consists of volcanic

breccia Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of ...

and

pumice Pumice (), called pumicite in its powdered or dust form, is a volcanic rock that consists of highly vesicular rough-textured volcanic glass, which may or may not contain crystals. It is typically light-colored. Scoria is another vesicular v ...

. It is protected from erosion by the overlying

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

, an uplifted

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. C ...

Except for the darkened rear wall, all the walls of the cave are covered to head height with

cave paintings In archaeology, Cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric origin, and the oldest known are more than 40,000 y ...

, some of which overlap each other. The oldest ones are red spots and handprints, probably dating from the first millennium BCE, assigned to the

Lapita culture The Lapita culture is the name given to a Neolithic Austronesian people and their material culture, who settled Island Melanesia via a seaborne migration at around 1600 to 500 BCE. They are believed to have originated from the northern Philipp ...

. However, most of the pictures are black line drawings. Among them are some that are 1,500 years old, but most were made much later; the most recently dated ones are from the eighteenth century. The illustrations show birds, fish, and anthropomorphic figures. Abstract designs include simple and complex geometric figures such as angles, triangles and diamond shapes. The largest human representation, according to tradition, is that of Roi Mata. Excavations show no evidence that the cave was ever inhabited. In earthquakes, it is regularly threatened by

rockslide A rockslide is a type of landslide caused by rock failure in which part of the bedding plane of failure passes through compacted rock and material collapses ''en masse'' and not in individual blocks. Note that a rockslide is similar to an avalanc ...

s. In the last major earthquake in 2002, part of the entrance collapsed. For residents of Lelepa the cave is considered tapu. According to local beliefs, after death one's soul moves into the Fels Cave. It is said that one can then find their footprints at the entrance. There is a tradition to sweep that area after a death and to look for the footprints the next morning, which is still occasionally observed.

Tourism

Fels Cave has attracted European visitors since the nineteenth century. At the entrance of the cave, there is graffiti from travelers going back to 1874. The municipality Natapau operates a travel company that brings visitors daily by canoe to the island. The island gained fame from the opening sequence of the US television show Survivor: Vanuatu, in which the contestants are on the beach of Lelepa. However, the actual jungle camp was on Efate in Mangaliliu. In October 2019, the

Prime Minister of Vanuatu The prime minister of Vanuatu is the head of government of the Republic of Vanuatu. The office of Prime Minister was created under the Constitution of Vanuatu upon the country's independence in 1980, with independence campaigner Walter Lin ...

and

Royal Caribbean International Royal Caribbean International (RCI), also formerly known as Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL), is a cruise line brand founded in 1968 in Norway and organised as a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group since 1997. Based in Miami, Flo ...

announced plans for the cruise line to develop a private resort on the island.

References

External links

Entry
on UNESCO World Heritage Site
Nomination
(PDF, 43 MB) from the Republic of Vanuatu for the entrance of Chief Roi Mata's Domain in the World Heritage List, 2006–07
Lelepa Island ToursTravel report
and pictures from Lelepa

article in the ''

Vanuatu Daily Post The ''Vanuatu Daily Post'' is a newspaper published in Port Vila in Vanuatu. It is the only daily newspaper in Vanuatu. The newspaper's founder, Marc Neil-Jones, had been the victim of physical attacks supported by government ministers during ...

'', September 29, 2008 {{authority control Shefa Province Islands of Vanuatu