Isle of Thanet 4.36

The Isle of Thanet lies at the most easterly point of Kent, England. While in the past it was separated from the mainland by the 600m Wantsum Channel, it is no longer an island.Archaeological remains testify to the fact that ancient peoples lived here. Today, it is a tourist destination, but it also has a busy agricultural base.EtymologyStandard reference works for English place-names all state the name "Tanet" is known to be Brythonic in origin. Commonly the original meaning of Thanet is thought to be fire/bright island, this has led to speculation the island was home to an ancient beacon or lighthouse.The Historia Brittonum, written in Wales in the 9th century, states that "Tanet" was the name used for the island by the legendary Anglo-Saxons Hengist and Horsa, while its name in Old Welsh was "Ruoihin"; this name may be translated as "gift" .The 7th-century Archbishop Isidore of Seville recorded an apocryphal folk-etymology in which the island's name is fancifully connected with the Greek word for death, stating that Thanet, "an island of the ocean separated from Britain by a narrow channel... called Tanatos from the death of serpents; for while it has none of its own, soil taken from it to any place whatsoever kills snakes there."