Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about
Amazing facts about Madagascar, the island it took humans 300,000 years to discover
To mark the country’s independence day (June 26), here are a few things you might not have known about Madagascar.
1. It’s the world’s fourth largest island
Madagascar is big. It’s 226,917 square miles to be precise, making it the fourth largest island on the planet (and bigger than Spain, Thailand, Sweden and Germany). The UK is a rather puny 93,410 square miles in comparison. Which is the world’s largest island? Take the quiz below to find out.
2. With a big population
There are 26.2 million Malagasies, making it a more populous country than Australia, Sri Lanka, The Netherlands, Romania and Greece.
3. But it wasn’t even discovered until 500AD
Madagascar was only colonised by human settlers relatively recently - perhaps as late as 500AD - some 300,000 years after the first appearance of Homo sapiens in Africa.
4. It had a mad queen
Fans of the Flashman series of novels may well have heard of Ranavalona. She thwarted European efforts to gain sway over Madagascar during her 33-year rule, but also focused her energies on brutally eradicating Christians, neighbouring kingdoms and political rivals. So widespread were the purges, and the use of slave labour to construct a vast palace and public works, that the island’s population fell from five million to 2.5 million between 1833 and 1839. One way Ranavalona maintained order was the tangena ordeal, by which the accused was poisoned, and then forced to eat three pieces of chicken skin. Death, or the failure to regurgitate all three pieces, indicated guilt. Others opponents were simply thrown into vast ravines.
The remains of her palace, the Rova of Antananarivo, can still be seen in the capital.
5. It’s paradise for wildlife lovers
According to Conservation International, just 17 countries are considered “megadiverse”. Each possesses a vast number of different species – many found nowhere else. And Madagascar, thanks largely to being undisturbed by humans for so very long, is one. Among its resident animals are more than half the world’s chameleons and dozens of species of lemur.
Unlike the film Madagascar, however, you won’t see any lions, zebra, giraffes or hippo.
Comments
Post a Comment