TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS

TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS.

Turks Island Passage map.
First stamp in a set of 4, issued on 02.02.1978.
Face value: 6 cents of United States dollar.

Catalogues
- Scott No. 338.
- StampWorld No. 350.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 489.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 391.

The Turks and Caicos Islands are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. The first inhabitants of the islands were the Arawakan-speaking Taíno people, who most likely crossed over from Hispaniola some time from AD 500 to 800. Together with Taíno who migrated from Cuba to the southern Bahamas around the same time, these people developed as the Lucayan. Some sources state that Christopher Columbus saw the islands on his voyage to the Americas in 1492. However other sources state that it is more likely that Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León was the first European in Turks and Caicos, in 1512. In 1799, both the Turks and the Caicos island groups were annexed by Britain as part of the Bahamas.

The Turks Islands are separated from the Caicos Islands by Turks Island Passage, which is more than 2,200 m (7,200 ft) deep.