Nassau is the capital and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The city has an estimated population of 274,400 as of 2016, just over 70% of the population of the country (≈391,000). Lynden Pindling International Airport, the major airport for the Bahamas, is located about 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) west of Nassau city centre, and has daily flights to major cities in Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and the United States. The city is located on the island of New Providence, which functions much like a business district. Nassau is the site of the House of Assembly and various judicial departments and was considered historically to be a stronghold of pirates. The city was named in honour of William III of England, Prince of Orange-Nassau, deriving its name from Nassau, Germany.
The earliest arrival of humans in the islands now known as The Bahamas was in the first millennium AD. The first inhabitants of the islands were the Lucayans, an Arawakan-speaking Taino people, who arrived between about 500 and 800 AD from other islands of the Caribbean. Their ancestors came from mainland South America, where Arawakan-language peoples were present in most territories, and especially along the northeastern coast.
This article talks about transportation in the Bahamas, a North American archipelagic state in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Abaco Islands lie in the northern Bahamas 180 miles (290 km) east of South Florida. They comprise the main islands of Great Abaco and Little Abaco, along with smaller barrier cays. The northernmost are Walker's Cay, and its sister island Grand Cay. To the south, the next inhabited islands are Spanish Cay and Green Turtle Cay, with its settlement of New Plymouth, Great Guana Cay, private Scotland Cay, Man-O-War Cay, and Elbow Cay, with its settlement of Hope Town. Southernmost are Tilloo Cay and Lubbers Quarters. Another of note off Abaco's western shore is onetime Gorda Cay, now a Disney Island and cruise ship stop and renamed Castaway Cay. Also in the vicinity is Moore's Island. On the Big Island of Abaco is Marsh Harbour, the Abacos' commercial hub and the Bahamas' third largest city, plus the resort area of Treasure Cay. Both have airports. A few mainland settlements of significance are Coopers Town and Fox Town in the north and Cherokee and Sandy Point in the south. Administratively, the Abaco Islands constitute seven of the 31 Local Government Districts of the Bahamas: Grand Cay, North Abaco, Green Turtle Cay, Central Abaco, South Abaco, Moore's Island, and Hope Town.
A private island is a disconnected body of land wholly owned by a single private citizen or corporation. Although this exclusivity gives the owner substantial control over the property, private islands remain under the jurisdiction of national and sometimes local governments.
The Bahamas competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004. This was the nation's fourteenth appearance at the Olympics, except the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow because of the United States boycott.
Hurricane Frances was the second most intense tropical cyclone in the Atlantic during 2004 that proved to be very destructive in Florida. The sixth named storm, the fourth hurricane, and the third major hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. The system crossed the open Atlantic in mid and late August, moving to the north of the Lesser Antilles while strengthening. Its outer bands struck Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands while passing north of the Caribbean Sea. The storm's maximum sustained wind peaked at 145 mph (233 km/h), achieving Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. As the system's forward motion slowed, the eye passed over San Salvador Island and very close to Cat Island in the Bahamas. Frances was the first hurricane to impact the entire Bahamian archipelago since 1928, and almost completely destroyed the agricultural economy there.
The Bahamas national football team is controlled by the Bahamas Football Association; it was founded in 1967 and joined FIFA in 1968. Bahamas has never qualified for the FIFA World Cup. In 2011, they withdrew from the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers after playing in the first round.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the Bahamas may face challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. While same-sex sexual activity is legal in the Bahamas, there are no laws that address discrimination or harassment on the account of sexual orientation or gender identity, nor does it recognize same sex unions in any form, whether it be marriage or partnerships. Household headed by same-sex couples are also not eligible for any of the same rights given to opposite-sex married couples.
The Bahamas national cricket team is the team that represents the Commonwealth of the Bahamas in international cricket. The team is organised by the Bahamas Cricket Association (BCA), which became an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1987 and an associate member in 2017. The national team is first recorded as playing in 1983, but did not feature in an international tournament until 2001, when it played in the inaugural Americas Affiliates Championship. Since then, the Bahamas have regularly participated in ICC Americas tournaments, as well as on one occasion in a World Cricket League event. The team was also invited to the 2006 and 2008 Stanford 20/20 tournaments, where matches had full Twenty20 status.
The BFA Senior League is the highest championship of football in Bahamas. Before 2008 it was played between the winners of the New Providence Football League, the Grand Bahama Football League. In 2008 the two leagues from two islands merged into one league.
The Caribbean Islands Swimming Championships, or "CISCs", is a biennial aquatics championships held in even years. They are organized by CCCAN and feature age-group competition for teams from Caribbean island nations.
Religion in the Bahamas is dominated by various Christian denominations and reflects the country's diversity. Since the English colonization, most Bahamians adhere to diverse Protestant denominations with Anglicanism, Baptist churches, Pentecostalism, Adventism and Methodism being at the forefront. There is no state religion in the Bahamas, and there is generally free practice of religious beliefs.
The Bahamas national rugby sevens team is a minor national sevens side. It has competed at the Commonwealth Sevens. The Bahamas is a small, but emerging rugby sevens nation with four players currently (2009) on the West Indies Sevens squad. Ranked 5th in the Caribbean after the NAWIRA Sevens which were held in Nassau in November 2008. The Bahamas Men & women will next compete in the Caribbean Championship in Mexico in November 2009.
Miss Bahamas is a national Beauty pageant in The Bahamas.
Miss Universe Bahamas Or “ Miss Bahamas Universe” is a national Beauty pageant that has selected The Bahamas's representative to the Miss Universe pageant.
