Mont Saint-Michel bay from the sky - Stock-Fotografie

Mont Saint-Michel is a French commune in the Manche department in Normandy region that takes its name from a rocky island dedicated to St. Michael where now stands the abbey of Mont-Saint Michel. The architecture of Mont-Saint-Michel and its bay make it the most visited tourist site in Normandy and the third in France (after the Ile-de-France) with more than three million visitors each year2 (3250000 in 2006). A statue of St. Michael placed at the top of the abbey church rises to 170 meters above the shore. Major element, the abbey and its dependencies are classified as historical monuments by the 1862 list (60 other buildings being protected thereafter); the town and the bay since 1979 included on the list of UNESCO World Heritage. Mont Saint-Michel is a rocky island granite east of the mouth of the Couesnon River. He bathes in the bay of Mont Saint-Michel, opened on the English Channel. The island is a granitic outgrowth of about 960 meters in circumference, which rises above a sandy plain to 92 meters. It offers a land area of about 7 ha, above which rises the abbey. The essential part of the rock is covered by the footprint of the abbey of Mont Saint-Michel and its domain. The rock is only a small part of the town which also extends over the dike and dozens of hectares of polders.