Alejandro Selkirk Island (), previously known as Más Afuera (Farther Out (to Sea)) and renamed after the marooned sailor Alexander Selkirk, is the largest and most westerly island in the Juan Fernández Archipelago of the Valparaíso Region of Chile. It is situated west of Robinson Crusoe Island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. The Archipelago was home to the marooned sailor Alexander Selkirk from 1704 to 1709, and is thought to have inspired novelist Daniel Defoe's fictional Robinson Crusoe in his 1719 novel about the character (although the novel is explicitly set in the Caribbean, not in the Juan Fernández Islands). This was just one of several survival stories from the period that Defoe would have been aware of. To reflect the literary lore associated with the island and attract tourists, the Chilean government renamed the place Alejandro Selkirk Island in 1966. Geography The island measures north–south and east–west, and has an area of . It is densely wooded and very mountainous and is marked by ridges and numerous deep ravines lead to a steep, rugged coast on the east side of the island off which are tremendous depths. The coastal cliffs are up to high. The south, west and north sides of the island have sandy strips of beach which extend offshore in places. The highest peak, Cerro de Los Inocentes, rises to in the southwest part of Alejandro Selkirk Island, where there is also a prominent rock with a hole through it. Landing is possible near the center of the east shore at Quebrada Sánchez (Sánchez Ravine), and at the foot of Quebrada Las Casas (La Casas Ravine) ), where there is a boat slip and buildings of the former penal colony. Anchorage can be taken about east-northeast of Quebrada Sánchez (), in depths of to . The ravine is recognized by a white patch on a hill near it. Anchorage can also be taken, in depths of to , with sand bottom, off Rada de la Colonia. Alejandro Selkirk Island is the emergent summit of a submarine shield volcano that formed during the Pleistocene epoch. Dating of rocks on the island show that it is the youngest of the Juan Fernández Islands at an age of 1 – 2 million years old. Due to its young age, the island shows little evidence of erosion. According to some early reports, now disputed, about southwest of the island is the