Florida Keys

Series of small coral islands that curve over 240 km/150 mi southwest from the southern tip of Florida, USA, between the Straits of Florida and Florida Bay. The most important are Key Largo (the largest settlement) and Key West (which has a US naval and air station); economically they depend on fishing and tourism. A causeway links the keys to each other and to the mainland.

The northern, or inshore, end of the chain is a fragmented continuation of the beach ridges of eastern Florida, but at the southern end the chain reaches Key West, nearly 100 km/62 mi offshore. Much of the chain consists of nature reserves or parks. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary was established in 1790. Discovered by the Spanish explorer Ponce de León in 1513 and called Les Martires (the martyrs), the keys were not permanently settled by Europeans until the US Navy had rid the area of pirates in 1822.

The term ‘key’ is a Caribbean modification of ‘cay’, which is used in other coral-forming waters to describe these low-lying sandy islands (which are the USA's only coral reef).

Writers Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams lived on the keys.