Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island, 7°56′ south of the Equator in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from the coast of Africa and 1,400 miles (2,300 km) from the coast of South America. It is governed as part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, of which the main island, Saint Helena, is around 800 miles (1,300 km) to the southeast. The territory also includes the sparsely populated Tristan da Cunha archipelago, 2,300 miles (3,700 km) to the south, about halfway to the Antarctic Circle.
João da Nova discovered the island on Ascension Day 1501.
Royal Marine barracks (1830) in the former Royal Dockyard, Georgetown
Ascension Island viewed from the south
RAF Ascension Island
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern subregion of the Americas.
Scheme for geographic regions and subregions used by the United Nations Statistics Division
A composite relief image of South America
The Gran Roque village, the largest settlement of the Los Roques Archipelago, Venezuela
The prehistoric Cueva de las Manos, or "Cave of the Hands", in Argentina