In the early years of Christendom, the flatlands stretching

out between the Cotentin peninsula and the

Cancale heights were covered by the large Scissy forest.

Several times already since the Dawn of Time this land

had been covered by the sea, which had then retreated

quite far away during glaciations, allowing erosion to

shape the landscape over millions of years : a wide and

flat stretch of land from which three, or maybe four

huge blocks of rock of a very hard type - granite or granulite

- emerged. These had resisted the wear and tear

of the ocean better than surrounding rocks. Mont

Tombe, later called Mont-Saint-Michel, was one of

these.