Madagascar Geography
Madagascar lies in the South West Indian Ocean, some 400 km off the African coast. It is the world’s fourth largest island, about 2.5 times the size of the UK. Most of the population depend on subsistence farming, based mainly on rice and cattle, although manufacturing is growing. Madagascar is noted for its bio-diversity and high proportion of endemic species. But, because of slash and burn agriculture and poor management, only 26% of the land remains forested. Climatically sub-tropical, temperatures vary; in the highlands daytime temperatures are 31C in January and 15C in July. Most of the country has adequate rainfall except the south, the poorest and driest region. Regular cyclones cause extensive flooding and damage.
Related Travel Information
Geography of Algeria
Inhabitants: 33 million (2003 estimate).
Population growth rate: 1.7%
Total area: 2,381,740 km˛
Density: 14 per km˛
Border: 6,643 km (Morocco 1,559 km, Western Sahara 42 km, Mauritania 463 km, Mali 1,376 km, Niger 956 km, Libya 982 km, Tunisia 965 km).
Coastline: 998 km
Highest point: Tahat 3,003 m
Arable land: 3.2%
Capital: Algiers
Zambia : Geography
The Republic of Zambia is a land-locked country occupying an elevated plateau in south central Africa. Eight other countries border Zambia: Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe. Zambia's shortest route to the sea is via Zimbabwe to Beira in Mozambique.
Mauritius : Geography
Mauritius is a mountainous sub-tropical island in the Indian Ocean, with an area of 1,865 square km. The Republic of Mauritius also includes the island of Rodrigues, 560km east of the principal island, and several small island dependencies. Mauritius lies some 800km to the east of Madagascar. The capital, Port Louis, is in the north west of the island.
The temperature range is moderate, from a low of 16ēC in the winter, to 35ēC in summer. Mauritius has a number of micro-climates so weather conditions can vary considerably across the island. The islands are in the Indian
ALGERIA - CLIMATE AND GEOGRAPHY
Algeria has been in trouble for 10 years, involving civil unrest, terrorism against the population from both the government and from militant Islamists. This has strongly effected the economy, and today living conditions are far from as good as in the beginning of the 1990's.
Algeria's north is fairly fertile with agriculture land in between forested mountains. There are two mountain ranges dominating this region, Atlas and Kabylia.
The desert starts quickly after leaving the coastal area, at first only as stone desert, but soon with large areas with sand desert. Desert dominates large parts of Algeria's vast
Madagascar History
Although Madagascar is geographically close to mainland Africa, its history and culture are quite distinct. The first settlers are believed to have arrived from Indo-Malaya in the 5th century. The first European visitors were the Portuguese in 1506, but they did not occupy the island. With British help a strong independent Merina monarchy developed in the 19th century and conquered the whole island. It had close links with the British Royal Family. Protestantism brought by the London Missionary Society (LMS) was adopted as the official religion. The LMS created a written language, and together with French and other missionaries,
