THANET, ISLE OF

island in the northeastern corner of the administrative and historic county of Kent, England, bounded by the Thames Estuary and two branches of the Great Stour River. It is 42 square miles (109 square km) in area and is composed mainly of a chalk outlier ending in the North Foreland. In earlier centuries Thanet was more distinctly an island; the Wantsum Channel, an important water route, separated it from the mainland. Two 3rd-century Roman forts, Reculver (Regulbium) in the north and Richborough (Rutupiae) in the south, guarded the Wantsum Channel, and Ebbs Fleet, at its southern end, was the reputed landing place of the Anglo-Saxon leader Hengist in the 5th century. The channel remained navigable for small boats until the 16th century. Thanet was closely associated with Dover and Sandwich, and it lay within the jurisdiction of the medieval Cinque Ports. Margate and Ramsgate have developed as coastal resorts.