1. Madagascar is the world’s fourth largest island.
2. A person from Madagascar is called a Malagasy.
3. Madagascar is home to 70 species of
lemurs found nowhere else on Earth.
4. More than 50% of the world’s chameleon population is found on Madagascar and over 300 species of reptiles not found anywhere in the world but Madagascar.
5. The Malagasies have closer
roots to Southeast Asians than
Africans.
6. The capital city of Madagascar is Antananarivo, also commonly referred to
as Tana. Antananarivo is the country’s
largest city with more than 3.6 million
people.
7. Madagascar was a French colony
from 1897 until 1968 and then gained
full independence from France on 26
June 1960. The Malagasy celebrate
their country’s independence annually
on this day.
8. Madagascar split away from the
African continent about 180 million
years ago. About 80 million years ago
the landmass broke away from India.
Therefore it has a very unique flora and
fauna. Madagascar is one of the 17
megadiverse countries in the world.
9. The country is also known as the
“Great Red Island” for its iron-rich red
soil. Intensive red soil is found mainly in
the central highlands.
10. The baobab are a tree species that
is endemic to Madagascar. The baobab
alley in western Madagascar is home to
six of the eight species of baobab that
are found in Madagascar only. Some of
the baobabs in this alley are up to 800
years old. The baobab tree is called reniala in the Malagasy language. Often people also refer to the tree as bottle tree as the trunk of the baobab tree stores lots of water. The baobabs have long trunks as they grow up to 30 m/ 98 ft in height.
11. Madagascar is the world’s largest
vanilla export country and produces
about half of the world’s vanilla crops.
Vanilla is the second most expensive
spice after saffron because it is very
labour-intensive to grow vanilla plants.
Vanilla beans were introduced to
Madagascar in the 19th century.