Alexander Island

Also called  Alexander Land,   large island in the Bellingshausen Sea, separated from the Antarctica mainland by the George VI Sound. An extremely rugged region with peaks up to 9,800 feet (2,987 m) above sea level, it is 270 miles (435 km) long and up to 125 miles (200 km) wide and has an area of about 16,700 square miles (43,250 square km). The Russian explorers Bellingshausen and Lazarev discovered the land in 1821 and named it after the Russian tsar.