Basse-Terre

Basse-Terre is a commune in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe, in the Lesser Antilles. It is also the prefecture (capital city) of Guadeloupe. The city of Basse-Terre is located on Basse-Terre Island, the western half of Guadeloupe. Although it is the administrative capital, Basse-Terre is only the second largest city in Guadeloupe behind Pointe-à-Pitre. Together with its urban area it had 44,864 inhabitants in 2012 (11,534 of whom lived in the city of Basse-Terre proper). Geography Basse-Terre is located in the south-western corner of the Basse-Terre portion of the island of Guadeloupe which is itself located some 100 km north of Dominica and some 450 km south-east of Puerto Rico. The commune is at the foot of the Soufrière volcano and is connected to the rest of the island by three main roads: The which exits the commune in the south on the coast and continues inland to Gourbeyre then all the way around the coast to Pointe-à-Pitre on Grande-Terre. The which goes north along the coast to Vieux Habitants and continues all the way around the coast to join the N1 at Baie Mahault. The N3 which traverses the length of the commune and continues to Saint-Claude inland.