As early European sailed past Anguilla for the first time, they must have marveled at the contrast between it and its mountainous neighbor St. Martin just a few miles to the south. The island is flat with only a few rolling hills rising to the highest elevation of 213 feet. However, they would have been equally enthralled by its most striking feature: the dozens of blinding white sand beaches which ring its coastline, some stretching for miles and others hidden away in tiny inlets. In a region renowned for pristine beaches, Anguilla's rank among the finest.
It is not clear whether these first voyagers came ashore. If they did they would have found a limestone and coral island covered with low vegetation, rocky in some places but with areas of more fertile soil in the low-lying areas or "bottoms", and they with a few salt ponds scattered here and there. As they sailed away its long narrow shape inspired them to name it "L'Anguille", the French word for "eel". They left this
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