Madagascar is the largest island in Africa. The most famous islands of Africa The largest island off the coast of Africa

Madagascar is the largest island off the coast of Africa and in the entire Indian Ocean. Very often it is called a kind of miniature mainland. This is due to the fact that its flora and fauna are very different from those that exist on the African continent. Many of their representatives are found only here. Moreover, local landscapes are unique and are not repeated anywhere else on the planet. Several millennia ago, it was part of a huge mainland known as Gondwana, which eventually split apart. As a result, Africa, Antarctica and Madagascar itself were formed. Now the most big Island Africa is separated from the main continent by the Mozambique Channel, which is about 300 kilometers wide.

The local landscape is diverse. Most of the territory is a plateau. In some areas, it rises above sea level to a height of up to 2876 meters. Not far from the city of Antananarivo are the Ancaratro mountains, maximum height which is equal to 2643 meters. Africa also boasts of its fertile plains. They are located on the west and east coasts. All local rivers flow into the Mozambique Channel and flow from east to west. Although there are not many of them, they attract a huge number of tourists every year with the abundance of their waterfalls and picturesque landscapes.

best time to visit the largest island in Africa, the period from March to April is considered. It is recommended to go to the central part from November to March. This is due to the specifics of the local climate. The fact is that there are wet and dry seasons. On the east coast it almost always rains, and strong trade winds lead to the fact that rain jets fly almost horizontally, so no canopies and umbrellas can save them from them. The average winter temperature is 16, and summer - 34 degrees Celsius.

The Democratic Republic of Madagascar, which was formed as a result of a military coup in 1975, occupies not only this large island of Africa, but also several small ones nearby. The country's area is just over 587 thousand km 2. The population of the state exceeds 14 million people. Most of them live in the most major cities, including Antananarivo mentioned above, as well as Tulear, Tuamasina, Mahajanga, Fianarantsoa and others. There are two official languages ​​in the republic - French and Merina (one of the dialects of Malagasy). The President leads the country, and the Prime Minister is the head of government.

The first European to visit the largest island in Africa on August 10, 1500 was the Portuguese Diego Diaz. In the new lands, travelers were engaged in robberies and murders, so as soon as they set off towards India, the local population breathed a sigh of relief. Much to his regret, six years later the next European expedition appeared on the island. Its representatives did not differ much from their predecessors, so most of the adult inhabitants of Madagascar were destined to become slaves. At different times, the Portuguese, French and British tried to gain a foothold here. In 1896, the island became self-governing in 1958, and the declaration of independence took place in 1960.

Currently, Madagascar is a member of many world organizations, including the IMF, UN, WHO and others.

Unique natural objects- The island of Madagascar. The Rwenzori mountains in the Congo. Canary Islands.

20.02.2017 / 10:06 | Varvara Pokrovskaya

Madagascar island

Madagascar, the largest island in the Indian Ocean, is often referred to by geographers as "a miniature continent". This is explained, firstly, by the extraordinary diversity of its landscapes, and secondly, by the peculiar flora and fauna that distinguishes it from nearby Africa and from other parts of the world.

The combination of tropical rain forests, tall grass savannahs and even semi-deserts, mountain ranges, plateaus and coastal plains, extinct volcanoes and coral reefs, swampy lagoons and mangroves, monsoon and trade winds determines the existence of a wide variety of landscapes on the island, and the animals and plants of Madagascar, three a quarter of which are found only here, are not at all like Africans, and if they have relatives, then usually in Indo-China and Indonesia, and even in South America.

Madagascar is a mountainous country. Almost half of it is occupied by the High Plateau, stretching across the entire island from north to south. On the east coast, where the trade winds bring moisture from the Indian Ocean, it rains, stormy and plentiful, almost every day. Due to the strong wind that accompanies them, shower jets are directed almost horizontally, and no umbrellas and awnings can save them from them. Strictly speaking, a distinction is made between the wet season and the dry season. But the latter, which lasts from May to November, differs only in that occasionally there are days without precipitation. In July, at the height of winter, the thermometer shows plus sixteen, and in February the temperature reaches thirty-four degrees.

On the steep slopes of the plateau grow evergreen forests of ferns, tamarinds, palms and other tropical trees, entwined with vines and decorated with bright orchids. There are many valuable species of trees in these forests. At different types rosewood, for example, wood is purple, pink and even black. There are also rubber plants here. And lacquer is made from the resin of the copal tree.

But of all Madagascar trees, the most famous is the equal. In appearance, it looks like a banana, only the banana leaves grow directly from the ground, and the Ravenala has a real trunk, from the top of which diverge, like the spokes of a wheel, huge leaves, torn by the wind along the edges. Where the leaf cuttings are going to the trunk, there are special containers containing several liters of water. Having met a revenant, a tired traveler can always quench his thirst. No wonder it is also called the "tree of travelers". Creepers of Madagascar are unique. The pod of one of them, the entada creeper, reaches two meters in length and one and a half in width! Several of these pods, split in half, make an excellent roof for a hut. They make ropes from vines, weave baskets and mats. And from some, especially strong ones, they build houses, since they are the only plants on the island that termites do not touch.

In the west, where the mountains do not let rain clouds through, the savannah reigns, and in some places, in the south, it is a hot semi-desert, since precipitation here is rare and falls only in winter. In the dry season, not a drop of moisture spills for months, and the temperature rises to forty degrees! Forests in the west are found only in river valleys, and the savannah is overgrown with brush-hard grass, and only in some places small baobabs and fan palms rise. Trees in the western part of the island shed their leaves for the winter so as not to evaporate moisture during the dry season.

The fauna of Madagascar in its originality can only be compared with the Australian one. The main treasure of the fauna of the island is, of course, lemurs. These funny animals, resembling a cross between a monkey and a cat, live in forests and are nocturnal. They have large, glowing eyes and a piercing voice, reminiscent of the whimsical cry of a child.

The largest of the lemurs is the indri. They are easily tamed, and the inhabitants of the island - the Malagasy - often use them for hunting instead of dogs. Another genus of lemurs with a fox head and a long tail is the maquis. They are very lively and mobile, stay in flocks and are often seen in the evenings when they jump through the trees in search of tasty fruits. The complete opposite of them is the fat lory. This clumsy and clumsy baby is slow, like an Australian koala. Also interesting is the aye-aye, or armlet, an angry flat-headed lemur with huge ears and a long tail. He lives in bamboo forests, feeds on the core of bamboo and sugar cane, and also does not disdain beetles and larvae. With its long fingers, the aye-aye easily extracts the contents from the trunks of bamboo and reeds. This gourmet is very afraid of the light. As soon as the sun rises, he falls asleep with his head between his legs and wrapped around it with his long tail.

The Malgash consider lemurs to be sacred animals. There is a legend that once upon a time they were people, and then, living in the forest, overgrown with wool and turned into animals. When meeting a lemur in the forest, the hunters always politely greet him, and the animals that accidentally fell into a trap will certainly be released and released into the wild.

Of the predators on the island, only the reddish-black fossa is found - the ferret cat. It is about the size of a large dog, but is small in stature, since its paws are short. Malgasi are very afraid of fossa. There are many legends and hunting stories about her bloodthirstiness and strength.

It is found in Madagascar and the mongoose is the main exterminator of snakes. And in the mountain forests live shy and timid eared hedgehogs - tenrecs. These rather large (from a rabbit) animals come out of their holes only at dusk and busily begin to look for food - small insects. In winter they hibernate.

The Madagascar bird world is bright and unusual. Green parrots, bright red cardinals, blue doves and kingfishers, sultan chickens, ibises and guinea fowls are found here. Once upon a time, huge, similar to giant cassowaries, epiornis birds lived on the island. The growth of these giants reached five meters! They died out quite recently, since Marco Polo mentioned them in his book. And later, in the 18th century, sailors who sailed to the island heard the cries of these birds. The giant epiornis egg was 150 ostrich eggs in volume. The Malgash used them to make vessels that could hold eight liters of water.

There are no poisonous snakes in Madagascar, and the only truly dangerous animals here are crocodiles. They literally teem with swamps and lakes of the island.

And among European collectors, the amazingly beautiful butterflies of Madagascar enjoy special respect. Goliath - the largest of them - is easy to mistake for a bird. This is a brown butterfly with a pink belly. Urania is amazingly picturesque, rightly considered the most beautiful butterfly in the world. Her wings shimmer, it seems, with all possible colors. The Madagascaria butterfly also strikes with a bizarre pattern on the wings.

There are a lot of chameleons of various sizes on the island. Because of their unattractive appearance, the Malagasy consider them vicious and harmful creatures, although in fact they are of great benefit, exterminating flies and other annoying insects. The chameleon, in fact, is a relative of lizards, but nature has clearly deprived him of agility. Sometimes it seems that it is not blood in his veins, but carpentry glue - his movements are so viscous and slow. And only the tongue of the chameleon is thrown forward with lightning speed when the prey is within reach. The chameleon is known primarily for its extraordinary ability to change color to match the color of the surrounding background, which makes it completely invisible in the forest.

Unusual animals and plants of Madagascar are widely known, but there are in the west of it amazing place, about the nature of which little is known even by the inhabitants of the island. This is the Bemaraha Plateau, located in the Manambolo River basin near the coast of the Mozambique Channel. Everything is amazing here: a fantastic relief, animals and plants, perhaps the last untouched corner of the wild nature of Madagascar has been preserved here.

The limestone plateau of Bemaraha rises 400 meters above the Manambolo Valley. The river cut through it a grandiose gorge with white layered walls. And spread around the gorge ... stone forest! The rocky ridges, karrs, fancifully carved by karst processes, bristled with thousands of sharp peaks, between which the water made deep cracks, and turned each boulder into a sharp jagged sword. A huge rocky labyrinth is almost impassable: limestone towers and walls overgrown with thorns formed a network of natural bastions throughout the plateau, reliably protecting it from aliens.

The Bemaraha region is poor in precipitation: the dry season here lasts up to eight months. And in the fissured limestones, even the moisture brought by rare rains quickly sinks into the depths, so that only plants well adapted to drought can survive here. An ebony tree, for example, turns green only during the rainy season, and the rest of the time it stands bare, saving water. And the baobab, on the contrary, accumulates water in its clumsy and powerful trunk, up to nine meters in thickness, and thanks to this it survives in the dry season.

Bizarre creatures inhabit the stone forest of Bemaraha. It is an armored chameleon resembling a small dragon or dinosaur with its prickly spines on its spine and spiky bumps on its head. There is also a kind of Madagascar rat with big ears. If you do not notice the long tail, it may well be mistaken for a rabbit. And on the trees that have grown in the crevices of the rocks, the arms and poppies live, enlivening the desert rocky landscape with their funny jumps and piercing screams.

Groups of remnant rocks formed by karst processes are also found in other places in the world, for example, in the Chinese region of Qingling or in Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. But there these limestone pillars and towers always have a rounded or flat top. And only here, in Madagascar, such an amazing pointed stone forest arose. The attractiveness of this corner lies also in the fact that not a single person has yet visited the depths of the plateau, and one can only guess what discoveries await scientists there. The nature of Madagascar still holds many secrets that will be revealed only to inquisitive travelers who have managed to overcome all the difficulties that the pioneers of the mountains, jungles and mysterious rocky labyrinths of this unique island face.

Rwenzori mountains

Between the Central African lakes Edward and Albert, where the equator line crosses the border of the Congo and Uganda, there is one of the most mysterious mountain ranges of our planet - the Rwenzori Mountains.

Until 1888, not a single European saw them. Yes, even after famous traveler Henry Stanley discovered them for science, few managed to admire their sparkling snowy peaks. The fact is that three hundred days a year the Rwenzori massif is covered by clouds, and in the remaining two months it only briefly opens at dawn or at sunset to the eyes of travelers passing at its foot.

When in 1906 the Italian expedition compiled the first map of these places, it turned out that the Rwenzori Mountains, stretching for one hundred and twenty kilometers from the northeast to the southwest, are the highest mountain range in Africa. As many as nine peaks rise more than four kilometers, and the highest of them - Margherita Peak - reaches five thousand one hundred meters and is the third highest on the continent. (After Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya standing alone south of Rwenzori.)

European and Arab geographers have been writing since the time of Ptolemy about the existence of the mysterious Moon Mountains in the center of Africa. It was believed that it was in them that the sources of the Nile were located. However, it took almost two thousand years to confirm this assumption. Moreover, already in the 20th century, five well-equipped expeditions that visited Lakes Albert and Edward could not find Rwenzori, although it would seem that from such a distance it is no more difficult than to notice the Eiffel Tower from the Seine embankment. Dense clouds interfered, completely hiding the giant mountain range from researchers.

And only perseverance, patience and observation of Stanley allowed him on the third attempt (!) to finally open the elusive ridge. This is how he himself describes this "hunt for Rwenzori":

"... Returning from Lake Albert in December 1887, we suddenly noticed that two huge truncated cones appeared on the horizon to the south of us. It seemed to us that their height should be from three to four kilometers. We dubbed them "Twins" and strongly became interested in them, believing that in the neighborhood with them there should be a very picturesque area.

Returning to the lake in April 1888, we did not see the Twins, but on May 25, when we moved two hours from the lake, our eyes suddenly appeared a huge snow-white mountain, with a central massif of fifty kilometers in length; on both sides of this mountain stretched two chains of mountains, a kilometer and a half below it. That day, all this was visible for several hours in a row. But the next day, the vision disappeared, no traces were visible, neither the Twins nor the snow ridge.

Returning to the Albert for the third time, in January 1889, we stopped at the local village for two and a half months, but saw nothing in all this time. However, one fine day, as usual, looking at the place where the snowy ridge should have been, we waited for it: all the mountain ranges at once stepped out from behind their cloud cover, and dozens of pairs of eyes greedily glared at this wondrous spectacle.

The upper part of the ridge, clearly divided into many pyramidal peaks, girded from below by a wide strip of milky-white fog, against the background of blue skies of extraordinary purity and transparency, seemed to be floating in the air, like that "Island of Bliss", rushing between heaven and earth, about which tells an old legend. As the sun sank to the west, the misty belt vanished, and the ghostly apparition became attached to a chain of mighty foothills. Although we were a hundred kilometers from the mountains, through the binoculars one could see stripes of forests and individual tree groups growing either on wide ledges or along the edges of the cliffs of some cliff hanging over a deep abyss. I thought that these must be the Lunar Mountains that Ptolemy once wrote about.

One must think that the transparency of the atmosphere is a rare phenomenon in the local area, and if we had visited here in passing, like other travelers, then, in all likelihood, Rwenzori would have remained in obscurity for a long time.

By the way, the Semliki River, which flows at the foot of these "Mountains of the Moon", flows into Lake Albert, as does the main source of the Nile - the Victoria Nile. From here, already under the name of Albert Nile, the future great river hurries north to meet the Blue Nile. So the ancient geographers were right: one of the sources of the Nile is indeed located in this mountain range.

Unlike Kilimanjaro and Kenya, the Rwenzori mountains are not of volcanic origin. This is a huge granite block, raised four kilometers up along a giant fault in the earth's crust, called by geologists the Great African Rift. Along the line of this arcuate fault are the long and deep African lakes Nyasa, Tanganyika, Kivu, Edward and Albert, and on the sides of it rise to a three-kilometer height the mountain ranges of Kitengere, Malimba, Marunga and Mitumba, as well as the cones of the volcanoes Sapitva and Karisimbi.

Rwenzori means "Rain Maker" in the language of the Bakongo people living here. Indeed, a high mountain range is a powerful barrier to the winds that bring moisture from the basin of the full-flowing Congo. Climbing up the slopes of Rwenzori, the humid air cools and clouds appear that rain almost every day.

At the foot of the Rwenzori stretch vast savannas, overgrown with tall two-meter elephant grass. Here is expanse for buffaloes, elephants and rhinos, herds of antelopes, giraffes and zebras graze here and cheetahs, lions and hyenas hunt for game.

From a height of two kilometers, lush rain forests, where, in addition to the usual forest inhabitants of equatorial Africa, there are also such rare animals as the pintail squirrel, which uses a sharp bone spike on the lower surface of the tail when climbing trees, or the Rwenzor otter shrew, which, unlike its relatives, prefers to live in rivers and streams and having webbed feet.

There is also a huge Cape otter almost one and a half meters long, and a forest boar - the largest of those living in Africa. This meter-high animal weighs up to one hundred and sixty kilograms, and hunting for it is far from a safe occupation. But the three-horned chameleon living on Rwenzori has the most unusual appearance. Superstitious blacks are afraid of him, considering him a messenger of misfortune.

In caves and hollows of trees live the largest bats in the world - flying dogs - with a wingspan of more than a meter. And of the dangerous predators, only the leopard climbs high into the mountain forests, instilling fear in the numerous monkeys that inhabit these places.

From three to three and a half kilometers on the slopes of Rwenzori there is a belt of strange-looking semi-forests, semi-shrubs, densely hung with lichens. They are formed by thickets of tree-like heather, reaching monstrous size in this humid and hot atmosphere. Here, in general, everything grows to gigantic proportions: grass, flowers, and ferns. Even the earthworms on Rwenzori are a finger thick and a meter or more long.

The zone of mountain meadows stretches even higher, where the traveler will meet the main decoration of this fantastic botanical kingdom. The modest flowers of the senetia (ragwort), reaching a height of twenty to thirty centimeters in our country, become real five-meter trees here, striking with the quirkiness of their black stump-trunk topped with a bunch of half-meter leaves.

The modest northern lobelia reaches the same huge size here, turning on the slopes of Rwenzori into a giant green rosette lying on the ground, from which a two-meter, candle-like inflorescence rises.

These plant giants, striking the imagination, unlike anything, rise among green meadows dotted with flowering violets, cuffs and lilies, and in places animated by mighty thickets of two-meter horsetails.

A similar landscape, reminiscent of scenes from films about the conquest of alien worlds, can be found in only two other places on Earth - on the slopes of Kenya and Kilimanjaro.

Having risen another half a kilometer, the traveler finds himself above the strip of continuous cloudiness. Bright sun floods with its rays an alpine landscape completely unusual for Africa, as if transferred here from somewhere from Mont Blanc. Above - jagged ridges eaten away by glacial cirques, sharp pyramidal peaks, snow fields sparkling with virgin whiteness and bluish tongues of glaciers. Below are deep troughs of valleys plowed by glaciers and countless mirrors of small and large glacial lakes, which reflect the elaborate "candelabra" of giant senetias and slender "candles" of gigantic lobelias, perfectly complementing this picturesque landscape.

Eternal snows and glaciers the highest peaks Rwenzori feed many fast streams with cold clear water. Merging, they form a little lower, in the forest belt, swift noisy rivers, rushing down steep rapids channels and rolling a mass of stone fragments along the bottom. Such watercourses are able to cut deep into the slopes of the mountain range. Gorges up to a kilometer deep divide the slopes of Rwenzori into many separate blocks, giving the ridge a ribbed appearance. From the western side, where the massif breaks off to the valley with a steep cliff, the rivers rush down to the plain in foaming streams of waterfalls three hundred or four hundred meters high.

However, to admire all this beauty, you will have to climb almost four kilometers. From below, he risks not seeing the mountains at all through the cloudy cloak in which Rwenzori wraps himself. But the difficulties of the ascent are instantly forgotten when the majestic panorama of the transcendental ridge covered with eternal snow opens up to the traveler's gaze.

At one time, Stanley described the feelings of a person who saw Rwenzori in this way:

“It happens that half an hour before sunset the wind drives the clouds away, and then one peak after another appears in the blue sky, powerful peaks are exposed one after another, snow-white fields and the whole undulating mass shines in its full splendor until dusk thickens and the dark night will cover it with an even darker tent.

Those short—too short—minutes of looking at the glorious "Rain Maker," as the Bakongo call their mists-shrouded mountain, fill the viewer with the feeling of looking into an open sky."

Canary Islands

West of the coast of Morocco Atlantic Ocean stretched for four hundred and fifty kilometers from west to east, a ridge of seven volcanic islands. This archipelago, friendly, picturesque and diverse, has been called the Canary Islands since ancient times. Such a not-too-pleasant name (canis in Latin - "dog") was given to the islands by the famous Roman scientist Pliny the Elder, who claimed that huge dogs were allegedly found on them. Later it turned out that the great naturalist was wrong, but the name has already taken root. And although the fertile islands off the coast of Africa were given at different times many other, more romantic names: "Islands of Eternal Spring", "Enchanted Islands", "Islands of the Blessed", "Champs Elysees" and even "Gardens of the Hesperides", nevertheless, on the maps these islands remain to this day under the first "dog" name.

Inhabited and developed by people five thousand years ago, the archipelago became known to the Phoenicians in the 11th century BC. A thousand years later, the Romans landed here, and in the 14th century, Spanish caravels appeared off the coast of the islands. A hundred years later, having broken the resistance of the local Guanches, Spain finally took possession of the archipelago, and to this day they belong to her.

It is clear that over the five hundred years of economic development of the Canary Islands by the Spaniards, the nature of the archipelago has changed in many ways. Fortunately, many islands, due to the mountainous terrain, turned out to be inconvenient for creating plantations, and their flora and fauna did not suffer so much.

The most famous, largest and most visible (in the truest sense of the word) island in the Canary Islands is Tenerife. Its main attraction, the Teide volcano, towering 3,700 meters above sea level, is visible from sailing ships almost two hundred kilometers away.

The vague outlines of a huge mountain, now appearing, now disappearing in the translucent haze of the morning mist, acted on the imagination of navigators from ancient times. Peak Teide was admired by Columbus and Cook, Bellingshausen and Humboldt. And in January 1832, the English ship Beagle approached the shores of the archipelago, on which the young naturalist and future creator of the theory of evolution, Charles Darwin, set off on his famous trip around the world. Here is what he wrote in his diary:

"On the sixth of January we reached Tenerife ... The next morning we saw the sun, rising from behind the bizarre rocks of the island of Gran Canaria, suddenly illuminate the Tenerife peak, while the low parts of the island were still hidden behind curly clouds. That was the first of those delightful days that I will never forget."

The first known eruption of Mount Teide occurred in 1492, just the year Columbus visited Tenerife. The volcano then showed its activity more than once: it erupted in 1706 and 1909. The funicular today allows the traveler to easily climb to the edge of the crater and look into the black and gloomy volcanic basin, on the edge of which rises a young cone that grew in 1909.

The basin, which bears the expressive name of Caldera de las Cañadas ("caldera of the abysses"), amazes with bizarre shapes of solidified lava flows and minerals of various colors, among which tahinastes flowers rise here and there, similar to huge candles.

Although most of the island has long been converted by the Spaniards into banana plantations and orange groves, in the northeast of Tenerife, near its capital, Santa Cruz, a large forest area has been preserved that occupies the mountain slopes off the coast. In the dry and hot climate of the Canaries, this dense, gloomy and cool forest, in which Canarian pines, laurels and northern birches grow side by side, seems like a green oasis next to the hot beaches and the dry rocky slopes of the Teide. At the edge of the forest serpentine mountain road leads to an open area, to a high coastal cliff - Pico de Inglés. From its kilometer height, the traveler has a view of the endless ocean distances and golden beaches, high cliffs and green groves of the coast.

If Tenerife with its soft and warm climate called "island eternal spring", then the easternmost of the Canary Islands, Lanzarote, would rightly be called the "island of fire-breathing mountains." On this small island, sixty kilometers long and fifteen kilometers wide, nature has brought together as many as three hundred volcanoes!

AT last time the island erupted in 1824. Then, along the fault line crossing the island, one after another, three volcanoes arose and began to throw out ash and lava at once: Tao, Tinguaton and Negro. But this formidable picture was no match for the firestorm that had raged on Lanzarote a hundred years earlier. In the autumn of 1730, thirty craters simultaneously began to spew hot ash and rivers of liquid lava, sowing death and devastation in the surrounding area. The monstrous eruption lasted for six whole years and covered a third of the island's territory with a gray lifeless cover of basalts.

The local priest then kept detailed records of what was happening. Here is an excerpt from this peculiar "chronicle of fiery years":

"Near Timenfaya, the earth split and a huge fire-breathing mountain grew. The terrible spectacle lasted three weeks. A few days later, other craters opened and splashed out lava that buried the villages of Timenfaya, Rodeo and Mancha Blanca. On the sixth of September high rock, deflecting the lava flow, changed its direction from north to northwest. This led to the death of the villages of Maretes and Santa Catalina. On September 11, new fiery fissures opened up. Liquid lava flooded the city of Maso, and six days later it reached the shore and roared into the sea, scattering terrifyingly beautiful cascades of sparks ... "

After such a long rampage of the fiery element, the appearance of the island has completely changed. Fields and vineyards, the richest villages were destroyed. In the center of the island grew a gloomy ridge of volcanic cones, reminiscent of lunar mountains.

Today, the entire central and western part of Lanzarote is referred to by residents as Mal Pais (“Bad Country”). Dark colors dominate here, you won’t hear birdsong here, here the formidable volcanic ridge of Montaña del Fuego (“Fire Mountains”) rises above the lifeless valley. The landscape of these places makes a strong impression: destroyed volcanic cones, blue-black ash fields, rust-red walls of craters oxidized by volcanic heat and mountains of gray slag ...

Huge vents gape, but not a single crater smokes, breathes fire. Not a single cloud of steam or smoke rises over Montaña del Fuego. But quite shallow under the outer layer of volcanic rocks, the bowels of volcanoes are still glowing with heat, and a traveler who has landed on Lanzarote can easily be convinced of this.

On the crest of one of the craters, an enterprising Canarian has set up a restaurant where the floor slabs are hot to the touch, and the cook fries the scrambled eggs, placing the pan directly on a pile of volcanic sand. For fun, the owner of the establishment throws an armful of brushwood with a pitchfork into a two-meter hole. Not even a minute passes before a fire flares up there. And nearby you can admire the man-made geyser. It is enough to pour a bucket of water into a pipe dug into the ground, as almost immediately steam escapes from it, and then a stream of boiling water, flying up to a height of four meters.

Traveling around Lanzarote is not difficult to make by bus, but it is more interesting to do it on a camel. The road cut through created here national park, leads along the frozen lava lake to a long chain of craters fringed with cinder heaps and hardened lava fountains, which are called "hornitos" here.

But still, the main attraction of the volcanic island is the Cueva de los Verdes cave. This is the largest lava cave in the world, stretching for six kilometers. Some of its halls reach fifteen meters in height and twenty-four in width. One of them even has concert hall.

The cave is located in the north of the island, under the lava fields of the Corona volcano. The river of molten basalt continued to flow under the cooled and hardened outer layer of lava from the side crater of the Crown down the slope directly into the sea, forming a natural tunnel with bizarre wall and roof shapes. From the plateau of Mal Pais, a narrow path leads the traveler into a gloomy deep abyss. Beyond the high, dark entrance, it first runs along a tunnel heading towards the sea, then turns west into a narrower passage and reaches the deepest part of the cave, forty meters below the surface.

All the way the tourist is accompanied by soft electronic music, reminiscent of the sound of glass drops. Searchlights light up the passages and halls, highlighting the arches painted with oxides and hanging lava pillars - a kind of volcanic stalactites that cast intricate shadows.

The cave has two tiers, the upper one being wider and more spacious. After several ascents and descents, the traveler finally enters the concert hall. The impression of underground music exceeds all expectations: after all, the porous walls of the lava cave create perfect acoustics.

On the way back, the tourist will meet a small lake near the path, filled with sea water seeping through cracks. Small crabs live in an underground reservoir, which have become absolutely white in the cave darkness. And in a wide funnel at the exit from the mysterious cavity, where the rays of the sun fall from above, you can sit in a cozy cafe, thinking about the terrible cataclysms that created this unusual underground volcanic world.

Other large islands of the Canary archipelago - Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Palma - have retained little of their pristine nature. The first of them is the kingdom of hotels and beaches, the second, due to the efforts of people, has become almost treeless, and its landscape does not please the traveler's eye. As for the island of Palma, it suffered greatly from what happened quite recently, in 1971, the eruption.

But the small mountainous island of Gomera, located south of Tenerife, has hardly changed since the time of the Spanish conquest. There is not even an airport here, and most tourists come here only on excursions.

The mighty Garahoney mountain range rises for a kilometer and a half above the island. Six deep gorges radiate from it to the coast. Two-thirds of the entire territory of the island of Gomera is covered with virgin forests of laurel, waxwort and tree heather. Of particular value are the laurel forests growing on the northern slopes. Covered with luxuriant fringes of mosses and lichens, the huge trees look "fluffy", and a continuous carpet of ferns complements the primeval appearance of these ancient forests that covered vast areas of the Mediterranean and North Africa millions of years ago.

Rare and cautious Canarian pigeons live in the laurel forests, giving themselves away only by gentle cooing, as well as the most famous feathered inhabitants of the islands - canaries, whose singing is heard from all sides.

Once upon a time, Guanches lived on Homer - the indigenous inhabitants of the archipelago, who appeared here thousands of years before our era. The rugged, rugged topography of the island forced them to develop a unique way of communicating. Being on opposite sides of the gorge, the Guanches could communicate in a special whistling language - silbo. This unique language made it possible to transmit messages over a distance of up to a kilometer.

Such an unusual language was found on our planet in only one other place - in one of the mountain villages of Turkey. Silbo has survived to this day, and on Homer one can still hear two shepherds whistling across the canyon, arranging a meeting or passing on news.

Another point of pride for the Gomers no longer belongs to botany or linguistics, but to history. Here more often than on other islands of the archipelago, the great Columbus visited. From 1492 to 1502, he visited the island of Gomera as many as four times, the reason for which, as they say, was his romantic passion for the local beauty, the Marquise of Monya. The house where the navigator stayed has now become the Columbus Museum. The future conqueror of the Aztec empire, conquistador Hernan Cortes, also visited the island on his way to America.

It is interesting to explore the island of Homer not only on foot or on horseback, but also from the sea. From the boat you can see the main miracle of the Homeric coast - the rock of Los Organos. It is a steep wall made up of thousands of hexagonal basalt columns rising from the waves of the sea like the pipes of a gigantic organ.

The abundance of sun and heat in the Canary Islands is not that boring, but requires a change of scenery from time to time. And in search of diversity, up to half a million tourists annually pass along the shady forest roads of the island of Gomera. Nevertheless, many untouched corners have been preserved on it, and this quietest and greenest island remains a true oasis of the unaltered nature of the Canary archipelago.

A traveler who has visited the Canary Islands will certainly tell his friends about climbing Mount Teide and the stunning views from there to the expanses of the Atlantic, about the tunnels of Cueva de los Verdes scorched by underground fire, about the formidable craters of Montagnadel Fuego and about the mysterious island with a beautiful in the name of Homer...

There is a water leak in the kitchen, a drain in the bathroom is clogged, you need to install a toilet, sink and more? All these issues require urgent solutions. Professional plumbing services to help you! Calling a plumber at home in Moscow from our company means getting quality plumbing services at an affordable price and on time.

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How to solve plumbing problems?

There are three options for solving a plumbing problem: do it yourself, contact the housing office or call a plumber at your place of residence from our company. The first, of course, is the most budget option. But he requires you to understand this area, to have free time as well as the availability of special tools and spare parts. The second option involves a lot of inconvenience. A utility worker can only come to you during business hours, which may not coincide with yours. And if you have a force majeure event in the evening, at night, on a weekend or a holiday? For example, did a drainpipe break, a sewer clogged, a toilet flush tank not working, and more? There is a way out - contact us and order plumbing services urgently! We work around the clock, without breaks and weekends, and within a short time our specialist will be at your door. Plumbing services are provided with careful observance of the relevant regulatory documentation. Calling a plumber to your home in Moscow with a guarantee for the work performed. Urgent repair, installation and dismantling of plumbing from market leaders!

We are a team of professionals, we have been working in the plumbing services market for many years. Our staff consists of qualified specialists who thoroughly understand both the plumbing and sewer systems, and the latest generation of plumbing. Our masters are equipped with everything necessary, which allows them to provide speedy service, diagnostics and repair of plumbing equipment. Our Moscow emergency service of plumbers promptly visits you and solves plumbing problems efficiently around the clock.

We provide plumbing services not only to owners of apartment buildings, but also to owners of the private sector. The arrangement of an autonomous heating system is also our profile. Taking into account the individual features of the structure, we are ready to offer different solutions for the problem of rational heating of housing.

Services we offer:

• laying / replacement / cleaning of sewer pipes;
• installation of a water heater, boiler and heating radiators;
• installation of a filter system and pumping equipment;
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• installation of hot and cold water meters;
• connection of household appliances to water supply and sewerage;
• dismantling of plumbing equipment and more.

Plumbing services from us - the best solution for you!

Plumbing services - the work of professionals

Any plumbing work requires a professional approach. As practice shows, amateurish actions can only aggravate the situation. Not worth it on your own equip, for example, a water heater. We install boilers and boilers in accordance with the rules for the safety and operation of this equipment.

Do you need to conduct collector wiring of polypropylene water supply pipes or change the battery at the height of the heating season? Not a problem, call us! With the help of a pipe freezer, we will quickly and efficiently, without draining the water, perform all the work.

We also install hot tubs and jacuzzis. These activities are usually associated with dismantling, connection to sewerage and water supply. Our experienced craftsmen, taking into account knowledge, new technologies and modern tools, will always find the most practical solution for your situation. The appearance of a blockage in the pipeline is a reason to call a plumber to your house.

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• we provide a full range of plumbing services;
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Madagascar is the largest island off the coast of Africa and in the entire Indian Ocean. Very often it is called a kind of miniature mainland. This is due to the fact that its flora and fauna are very different from those that exist on the African continent. Many of their representatives are found only here. Moreover, local landscapes are unique and are not repeated anywhere else on the planet. Several millennia ago, it was part of a huge mainland known as Gondwana, which eventually split apart. As a result, Africa, Antarctica and Madagascar itself were formed. Now the largest island in Africa is separated from the main continent by the Mozambique Channel, which is about 300 kilometers wide.

The local landscape is diverse. Most of the territory is a plateau. In some areas, it rises above sea level to a height of up to 2876 meters. Not far from the city of Antananarivo, the Ancaratro mountains are located, the maximum height of which is 2643 meters. Africa's largest island also boasts of its fertile plains. They are located on the west and east coasts. All local rivers flow into and flow from east to west. Although there are not many of them, they attract a huge number of tourists every year with the abundance of their waterfalls and picturesque landscapes.

The best time to visit the largest island in Africa is from March to April. It is recommended to go to the central part from November to March. This is due to the specifics of the local climate. The fact is that there are wet and dry seasons. There are almost always showers on the east coast, and strong trade winds lead to the fact that rain jets fly almost horizontally, so no canopies and umbrellas can save them from them. The average winter temperature is 16, and summer - 34 degrees Celsius.

Democratic, which was formed as a result of a military coup in 1975, occupies not only this large island of Africa, but also several small ones nearby. The country's area is just over 587 thousand km 2. The population of the state exceeds 14 million people. Most of them live in the largest cities, including Antananarivo mentioned above, as well as Tulear, Tuamasina, Mahajanga, Fianarantsoa and others. There are two official languages ​​in the republic - French and Merina (one of the dialects of Malagasy). The President leads the country, and the Prime Minister is the head of government.

The first European to visit the largest on August 10, 1500 was the Portuguese Diego Diaz. In the new lands, travelers were engaged in robberies and murders, so as soon as they set off towards India, the local population breathed a sigh of relief. Much to his regret, six years later the next European expedition appeared on the island. Its representatives did not differ much from their predecessors, so most of the adult inhabitants of Madagascar were destined to become slaves. At different times, the Portuguese, French and British tried to gain a foothold here. In 1896, the island became self-governing in 1958, and the declaration of independence took place in 1960.

Currently, Madagascar is a member of many world organizations, including the IMF, UN, WHO and others.

The largest island in Africa is, of course, Madagascar.

Madagascar is not only the largest African island, but also one of the most big islands world - the fourth largest. The French called this island "Great" for its huge size. It separated from the African continent more than 100 million years ago. And it seems that, according to some scientists, Madagascar is still moving away from the continent at an incredible speed - as much as 2 centimeters per century. The island is located in the Indian Ocean east coast Africa, and from which it is separated by the Mozambique Channel. The climate on most of the island is tropical, only in the extreme south of the island is subtropical. The length of the island is about 1600 kilometers, the width is over 600 kilometers, the area is 587,040 square kilometers - this is about twenty Moscow regions or the territories of France and Belgium combined. highest point islands is, on this moment not active, the Marumukutru volcano, whose height is 2876 meters, is located in the Tsaratanana mountain range, in the north of the island. The Anjafi mountain plateau occupies the central part of the island. The mountainous terrain of the island up to 2600 meters high is rich in minerals and metals: copper, iron, gold; the vast coastal plains are swampy, and some of them are very fertile.

Animal and vegetable world Madagascar is quite unique - it contains 5 percent of the world's plant and animal species and 80 percent of them exist only on this African island. Because of this uniqueness, Madagascar is often referred to as the "little continent".

In Madagascar, there is a state of the same name, with its capital in the city of Antananarivo, occupying the territory of the entire island. The state was formed on June 26, 1960, declaring its independence from France. The territory of 587,041 square kilometers is the forty-fifth in the world. Population 20,042,552, est. 2008, ranks 58th in the world.

Previously, several states existed on the island, but the most powerful and developed among them was the state of Imerina, founded by the Merinan people. The heyday of Imerin dates back to the 19th century. The name of this state indicates the place where it was located. Merina is translated into Russian as "highest". The kingdom was located on the High Plateau of Madagascar. At the beginning of the 16th century, Tananarive was founded - the “city of a thousand”, which received such a name in memory of the many thousands of troops that annexed the land on which this city was built to the kingdom. The great ruler of Ramboazalam, who ruled at the end of the 18th century, significantly expanded the boundaries of the kingdom, uniting under his rule many scattered tribes. It is Rambozalama who owns the famous formula of a single Madagascar: "Our border is the sea." And soon the unification of the island took place, a state “from sea to sea” was created, which occupied the territory of the entire island. On August 10, 1500, the Portuguese Diego Diaz was the first European to "discover" Madagascar. Soon after him, the French, British, and Dutch were drawn to the island.

In the 19th century, the state of Imerina achieved quite significant success. Even universal compulsory education was introduced. The level of education of the population in the country increased so much that the royal court fired heralds and posted their decrees on the walls of houses. Almost everyone could read them. The Malagasy state continued to develop, the first factories, metallurgical factories appeared on the island, mining began, periodicals were born, a network of medical institutions was created (more than 200 thousand people became their visitors in 1870 alone). In 1876 - 6 years earlier than in France - free education was introduced in Madagascar. But, despite all this, Imerina could not withstand the onslaught of one of the largest imperialist powers. Relying on armed force, using the differences between the tribes, France in 1896 annexes the island. Here we have the fact that before the appearance of European "civilizers" on the territory of the island, there was a highly developed state in which there was already something far from "super-civilized" and "super-cultural" - free and universal education, free medical care and almost universal literacy. The only thing in which the "civilized" Europeans, the French, clearly surpassed the "wild" African natives is in military strength.

The main population of the island are Malagasy. They speak Malagasy. This language is also called Malagash, and it belongs to the Indonesian group of the Austronesian language family.

The Malagasy language is in no way related to those around it. African languages. It is the westernmost of the Malayo-Polynesian languages ​​belonging to the Austronesian family. Malagasy is related to the languages ​​of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. The closest to it are the languages ​​spoken on the island of Borneo. The basic vocabulary of the Malagash language is 90% identical to the vocabulary of the Maanyan language in the region of the Barito River in southern Borneo. This can only mean one thing, Madagascar was inhabited by people from those places. The reason for this colonization is not known for certain. Later, settlers from the distant island of Borneo mixed with Arabs and people from East Africa. Malagasy has borrowings from Bantu, Swahili, and Arabic, as well as from French and English. The language has a written literature since the 15th century and a rich tradition of oral poetic traditions and legends.

A rather insignificant percentage of the island's population are Comoros, Chinese, Indians, Creoles, French and Pakistanis.

52 percent of the population are adherents of local ancient traditional beliefs - animalism, fetishism, the cult of ancestors, the forces of nature and others, 41 percent are Christians, of which about half are Catholics and half are Protestants, 7 percent are Sunni Muslims - immigrants from Pakistan and Comoros . The beginning of the spread of Christianity - the 17th century. Most Christians also profess local traditional beliefs at the same time.

From the foregoing, I can conclude that the island of Madagascar is a rather interesting and unusual place for our the globe, with unique flora and fauna and inhabited by people with a unique history and culture. In general, this is a place that is in no way inferior to the now popular places of tourism and recreation, and it is worth visiting. Moreover, since March 1, 2010, the authorities of Madagascar have canceled visa fees for all tourists from Russia who come to the island for up to thirty days.