| Elbow Cays | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Other Name: | Los Roques | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Settlement Type: | Cays | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates: | 23.95°N -107°W | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Pushpin Map: | Bahamas | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Subdivision Type: | Country | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Subdivision Name: | The Bahamas | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Subdivision Type1: | Region | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Subdivision Name1: | Cay Sal Bank, Bahama Banks | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Subdivision Type2: | District | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Subdivision Name2: | Bimini | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Unit Pref: | Metric | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Population Total: | uninhabited | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Population Density Km2: | auto | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Demographics Type1: | Languages | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Demographics1 Title1: | Official | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Demographics1 Info1: | English | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Timezone1: | EST | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Utc Offset1: | −5 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Module: |
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The Elbow Cays (Spanish; Castilian: Los Roques)[2] are uninhabited cays in the Cay Sal Bank, Bahamas. It is the most Western point in the Bahamas. They are part of a reef shelf located at the northwestern end of the bank about 80 km (50 mi) off the Cuban coast and 130 km (80 mi) southeast of Key West, Florida. These cays are an excellent scuba diving spot.
The Elbow Cays are the westernmost group on the reef, running southwest to northeast along the Straits of Florida. The southernmost cays of this group consist of unnamed islets and rocks. Northeast of these are South Elbow Cay (the westernmost named cay of Cay Sal Bank) and North Elbow Cay, the latter sometimes known just as Elbow Cay (Spanish; Castilian: Cayo Codo).[3]
North Elbow Cay, which is the largest and highest of the cays, is marked by a disused conical stone lighthouse, which is 17.7m (58.1feet) high. The site is open for visitors, but the ruined tower is accessible only by boat and reaching it is extremely hazardous.
The compact cluster of islets, rocks and reefs formed by Elbow Cays, Crenula Cay, Double Headed Shot Cays, Water Cays and Marion Rock, among other unnamed features, was named by the Spanish as Los Roques. These northwestern cays gave their name to the whole bank, which is known as Placer de los Roques, in the Spanish language.[4]
Spanish navigators visited the island, plotting it for the first time on a map in 1511 as Los Roques. The island and its atoll were subsequently claimed for the Spanish crown by Juan Ponce de León. The island was under the Spanish rule for about two centuries until 1718 when the Bahamas became a Crown colony of the British Empire.
A tall stone lighthouse was built by the British on the island of North Elbow Cay in 1839 along with some small buildings.[6] It marked the southern entrance to the Florida Straits from the Gulf of Mexico and was active until the 1940s. The abandoned lighthouse was briefly reactivated during the 1970s, when Bahamas police set up a post on nearby Cay Sal Island to watch for drug smugglers.
In ancient maps and nautical charts the size of these cays was often exaggerated.
