Samana Cay is a now uninhabited island in the Bahamas believed by some researchers to have been the location of Christopher Columbus's first landfall in the Americas on October 12, 1492.

Samana Cay was first proposed to be Guanahani by Gustavus Fox in 1882,[2] but the predominant theory gives the honour to San Salvador Island.

[3] However, in 1986, Joseph Judge of National Geographic Magazine made different calculations based on extracts from Columbus's logs and argued for Samana Cay as the location, but his methodology has also been criticised.

[4] Samana was a name of apparent Lucayan origin (meaning "small middle forested land")[5] used by the Spanish to designate one of the islands in the Bahamas.

[6] Samana Cay had a permanent population during the first half of the 20th century, and the ruins of the settlement are visible on the south side of the island, near the western end.