Grand Turk Island

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A view of the southwestern beach at Grand Turk. This is currently the cruise ship dock, all of the other beaches are serene and very unpopulated

Grand Turk Island is an island in the Turks and Caicos Islands. It is the largest island in the Turks Islands (not the Caicos) with 18 square kilometres. It contains the territory's capital, Cockburn Town. The island is the administrative, historic, cultural and financial center of the territory, and has the second largest population of the islands at approximately 3,720 people.

Grand Turk gained international attention in 1962 when John Glenn's Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft landed in the vicinity of Grand Turk Island off the southeast shoreline. A replica of the Friendship 7 is on display in Grand Turk at the entrance to the Grand Turk Island airport^[1].

The name comes from a species of cactus on the island, which have a distinctive cap, reminiscient of a Turkish fez.

It is said to possibly be the landfall island of Christopher Columbus during his discovery of the New World in 1492.^{[citation needed]}