Cilaos comes from a Malagasy word, Tsilaosa, which means " the place that one doesnt leave ". This cirque was the play of the erosion which dug deep steep-sidedness there. The Blacks maroon on the run occupied the cirque of Cilaos the first. They were dislodged about 1750 by François Mussard and his band. When the colonization of the cirque was undertaken, the small White of the Tops established plantations there. Some vines, the culture of the lentils, tourism and also the embroidery are the only means of subsistence of the village.