In the island of Corsica, in the Mediterranean Sea, France

 Corsica is the fourth-largest island (after Sicily, Sardinia, and Cyprus) in the Mediterranean.

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(in Corsica, a territorial collectivity of France and an island in the Mediterranean Sea embracing (from 1976) the départements of Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud.) It lies 105 miles (170 km) from southern France and 56 miles (90 km) from northwestern Italy, and it is separated from Sardinia by the 7-mile (11 km) Strait of Bonifacio. (Ajaccio is the capital.)

+ Mount Cinto attains an elevation of 8,890 feet (2,710 meters). Mountains descend steeply in parallel ranges to the west, where the coast is cut into steep gulfs and marked by high cliffs and headlands. To the east, the mountain massif falls in broken escarpments to extensive alluvial plains bordering a lagoon-indented coast. In the northeast, a separate mountain formation reaches heights not exceeding 5,790 feet (1,765 meters).

The island’s principal rivers are the Golo, Tavignano, Liamone, Granove, Tarova, and Profiano. A Mediterranean climate prevails on the coasts, where the average temperature is 51 °F (10.5 °C) in winter and 60 °F (15.5 °C) during the rest of the year.

+The flowers of the maquis produce a fragrance that carries far out to sea and has earned for Corsica the name the “Scented Isle.” In all, forests cover about one-fifth of the island. Bastia and Ajaccio, on the coast, are the largest towns and home to about half of the island’s population. In the early 21st century, some four-fifths of Corsica’s population was urban. In northern Corsica, the Balagne (once called the “Garden of Corsica”) is also densely populated. In contrast, sparsely populated rural villages, mostly situated at elevations between 650 and 2,600 feet (200 and 800 meters), have experienced much migration to the coast and to continental France.

+ The island’s economic life is based primarily on tourism as well as the raising of sheep for ewe’s milk, which is used to make fine-quality cheeses, and the cultivation of citrus fruits, grapes and olives.

+ Corsica has outstanding assets in its climate, scenery, and magnificent coastline, all of which promote tourism. Corsu, which is akin to Tuscan. Traditional folk music is performed by groups in the towns, and traditional handicrafts have been revived. (Corsica also has many museums.) The recorded history of Corsica begins about 560 BCE, when Greeks from Phocaea in Asia Minor founded the town of Alalia on the east coast. Carthaginian domination followed in the early 3rd century BCE, until the whole of the island was conquered by the Romans in a series of campaigns from 259 to 163 BCE.

+ Shown here is a Statue of Napoleon Bonaparte in Ajaccio, Corsica, France.
Some weeks after Paoli had fled to England, Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio on August 15, 1769. Corsica became a province of France that same year. Except for brief periods of occupation by the British (1794–96) and the Italians and Germans (1942–43), Corsica remained a French territory thereafter.