Baobab Tree
İ1998-2002: Jan Aarts/NL
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Madagascar
İ1998-2002: Jan Aarts/NL
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Madagascar, the fourth-largest island in the world, lies in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Mozambique. It
includes several much smaller islands. A central chain of high mountains, the Hauts Plateaux, occupies more
than half of the main island and is responsible for the marked differences - ethnically, climatically and scenically -
between the east and west coasts. The narrow strip of lowlands on the east coast, settled from the 6th century by
Polynesian seafarers, is largely covered by dense rainforests, whereas the broader west-coast landscape, once
covered by dry deciduous forests, is now mostly savannah. The east coast receives the monsoon and, on both coasts,
the climate is wetter towards the north. The southern tip of the island is semi-desert, with great forests of
cactus-like plants. Madagascar is a strange place with strange animals, the lemurs, that are found nowhere else
on the earth.
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