Heligoland ('Holy Land;' Ger. Helgoland), a small island in the North Sea, belonging since 1890 to Germany, is situated 36 miles NW. of the mouth of the Elbe. It is 1 mile long from N. to S., 1/3 mile from E. to W., and J sq. m. in area. The Oberland is a rock 206 feet high, on which stands a town of 400 houses, and access to which is obtained by 192 steps or by a steam-lift; while the Unterland is a patch of shore with 70 houses south-east of the cliff. The resident pop. was hardly more than about 2500 in 1905 ; but in the bathing season Heligoland is visited by upwards of 12,000 summer visitors - attracted by the bathing facilities of the 'sandy Island,' or Dune, once connected with the main island, separated from it by a channel about a mile wide. Denudatlng agencies are reducing Heligoland itself, which between 1890 and 1905 lost nearly a fourth of its area. The soil on the flat top of the rock of Heligoland suffices for a little pasture-land, and for growing potatoes and cabbages. The spit of the Unterland gives partial shelter to two harbours, one north, the other south. The inhabitants are supported chiefly by the lobster and other fisheries, and by the summer visitors ; the public gaming-tables, established in 1830, having been suppressed in 1871. Alight-house stands on the cliff near the village. The island, taken by the British from the Danes in 1807, and formally ceded to England in 1814, was ceded to Germany in 1890, in return for concessions made to Britain in East Africa. It has since been strongly fortified. A dialect of North Frisian is the native tongue, but German is currently spoken. Heligoland was anciently sacred to the goddess Hertha. Christianity was first preached here by St Willibrod in the 7th century. The fishers are Frisians, a tall and muscular race of hardy seamen. The merchants are immigrants from the mainland, or their descendants. The people, though they had been very loyal to Great Britain, accepted without opposition the annexation to Germany; and after a visit from the Emperor, Heligoland was formally incorporated with the kingdom of Prussia and the province of Sleswick-Holstein. See works by Black (1888), Lindemann (German, 1889), and Lipsius (German, 1892).