| Sunda Islands indon. Kepulauan Sunda, sund. Kapuloan sunda |
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| File: Indonesia 2002 CIA map.jpg | |
| 2 ° 00 ′ S sh. 110 ° 00 ′ east etc. / 2.000 ° S sh. 110.000 ° E etc. / -2.000; 110.000 Coordinates: | |
| Water area | Indian Ocean |
| Number of islands | over 3000 islands |
| Largest island | Kalimantan |
| total area | 1,700,000 km² |
| Highest point | 4095 m |
| Country | Indonesia 22x20px Indonesia Malaysia 22x20px Malaysia Brunei 22x20px Brunei East Timor 22x20px East Timor |
| Population (2010) | 244,900,000 people |
| Population density | 144,059 people / km² |
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Geography
Coordinates of extreme points: western - about. Breech, 95 gr. v.d., 5.5 gr. north latitude, eastern - about. Waigeo, 131 gr. v.d., 0 gr. latitude, north - about. Bungey, 177.5 gr. v.d., 7 gr. north latitude, southern - about. Roti, Cape Bua, 123 gr. east longitude, 11 degrees south latitude
The total area of \u200b\u200bthe archipelago is over 1.7 million km².
The Sunda Islands are divided into two groups:
- Greater Sunda Islands: Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi.
- Lesser Sunda Islands: Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Sumba, Timor, Barat Daya, Flores, Sawu and others.
The Greater Sunda Islands have an area of \u200b\u200b1.5 million km², the Lesser Sunda Islands - 128 thousand km², the Moluccas - 83.7 thousand km². The largest island is Kalimantan (Borneo) with an area of \u200b\u200b734 thousand km². In total, the archipelago includes more than 3000 islands.
All of the Greater and most of the Lesser Sunda Islands are surrounded by many very small islands. A special place near Sumatra is occupied by the Mentawai archipelago (of which the largest is Siberut). In the east, the Selatan-Timur group includes the Tanimbar Islands, the Kai Islands, and the Aru Islands. The Moluccas include the islands of Halmakhera, Seram, Morotai, Misool, Obi, Buru, and others. Some experts consider the Moluccas to be a separate archipelago, which is essentially a pure convention. Together with the neighboring Philippine archipelago, the Sunda constitutes a larger formation - the Malay Archipelago.
The Sunda Islands are predominantly mountainous, but there are two vast lowlands in Kalimantan and one in Sumatra. The highest points of the islands: Kinabalu, 4100 m (Kalimantan), Kerinchi, 3805 m (Sumatra), Semeru, 3676 m (Java), Rantocombola, 3455 m (Sulawesi), Segara-Rinjani on the island. Lombok, 3676 m (Small Sunda), on the island. Seram, 3018 m. There are more than 130 volcanoes on the archipelago, this is a zone of increased seismic activity.
Outside, the archipelago is washed by the South China Sea and the Arafura Sea. Inside the archipelago there are numerous inland seas (see list below): Rivers are mostly mountainous, short and rough. The largest rivers are in Kalimantan: Kapuas, Barrito, Kayan, Rajang; in Sumatra - Hari, originates on the Kerinchi volcano.
The Sunda Islands are divided by the following inter-island seas:
The climate of the Sunda Archipelago is equatorial and subequatorial (in the southern part of the archipelago). Forests are evergreen wet, in some places there are shrouds. The temperature in January is 24 ° C above zero, in July it reaches 32 ° C above zero. There is a lot of precipitation. On Kalimantan and the west coast of Sumatra - 3000 mm / year. In other areas - 2,000 or more. Very rich in vegetable and animal world.
History
Population
The archipelago is inhabited by numerous peoples of different cultural levels, related in language, speaking the languages \u200b\u200bof the Indonesian language branch, which is part of the larger family of Austronesian languages.
Economy
Mineral resources: oil, tin, bauxite, nickel, copper, manganese, zinc, chromium, lead. 60% of the territory is occupied by forests with valuable tropical species of trees. In the Lesser Sunda Islands, the land is predominantly occupied by agricultural land, rice, corn and industrial crops. In agrarian and industrial terms, the most developed island is Java.
see also
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Literature
- Geographical Encyclopedic Dictionary, ed. V. M. Kotlyakova, M.-2003.
- V.A.Aprodov. Volcanoes, M.-1982.
- Educational atlas of the world, GUGK, M.-1968.
- Reference map "Indonesia", GUGK, M.-1974.
- A. Kondrashov, Handbook of necessary knowledge, M.-2001.
Excerpt from the Sunda Islands
- Hi! She said, smiling cheerfully. - I'm Stella. How do you like my world? ..- Hello Stella! - I answered carefully. - It's really very beautiful here. Why do you call him yours?
- But because I created it! - the girl chirped even more cheerfully.
I opened my mouth, dumbfounded, but could not say anything ... I felt that she was telling the truth, but I could not even imagine how this could be created, all the more, speaking about it so carelessly and easily ...
- Grandma likes it too. - Enough said the girl.
And I realized that she calls “grandmother” the same unusual old woman with whom I had just talked so sweetly and who, like her no less unusual granddaughter, introduced me to a real shock ...
- Are you all alone here? I asked.
- When, how ... - the girl became sad.
- Why don't you call your friends?
“I don’t have them…” the baby whispered quite sadly.
I didn’t know what to say, afraid to upset this strange, lonely and so cute creature even more.
- Do you want to watch something else? - as if waking up from sad thoughts, she asked.
I just nodded in response, deciding to leave the conversation to her, since I did not know what else could upset her and did not want to try it at all.
- Look, it was yesterday - Stella said more cheerfully.
And the world turned upside down ... The Crystal City disappeared, and instead some kind of "southern" landscape was blazing with bright colors ... My throat caught in surprise.
“Is that you too? ..” I asked cautiously.
She nodded proudly with her curly red head. It was very funny to watch her, as the girl was really seriously proud of what she managed to create. And who would not be proud?!. She was a perfect baby who, laughing, in between times, created new incredible worlds, and immediately replaced the annoying ones with others, like gloves ... To be honest, there was something to come to shock. I tried to understand what is happening here? .. Stella was clearly dead, and her essence communicated with me all this time. But where we were and how she created these "worlds" of hers, so far it was a complete mystery to me.
- Don't you understand something? - the girl was surprised.
- To be honest - how! - I exclaimed frankly.
- But you can do much more? - the baby was even more surprised.
- More? .. - I asked dumbfounded.
She nodded, tilting her red head comically aside.
- Who showed you all this? - cautiously, afraid to offend her with something, I asked.
- Well, of course, grandmother. - As if she said something for granted. - At the beginning I was very sad and lonely, and my grandmother was very sorry for me. So she showed me how to do it.
And then I finally realized that it really was her world, created only by the power of her thoughts. This girl didn't even realize what a treasure she was! But my grandmother, I think, just understood this very well ...
As it turned out, Stella died a few months ago in a car accident, in which her entire family also died. Only the grandmother remained, for whom that time there was simply no place in the car ... And who almost went mad after learning about her terrible, irreparable misfortune. But, what was the strangest thing, Stella did not get, as everyone usually did, to the same levels as her family. Her body possessed a high essence, which after death went to the highest levels of the Earth. And thus the girl was left completely alone, since her mother, father and older brother were apparently the most ordinary, ordinary people who did not differ in any special talents.
“Why don’t you find someone here, where you live now?” I asked cautiously again.
- I found ... But they are all some old and serious ... not like you and me. - Thoughtfully whispered the little girl.
Suddenly she suddenly smiled cheerfully and her cute little face immediately shone with a bright bright sun.
- Do you want me to show you how to do it?
I just nodded in agreement, very afraid that she would change her mind. But the little girl was clearly not going to "change her mind", on the contrary - she was very glad to find someone who was almost her age, and now, if I understood something, she was not going to let me go so easily ... This " perspective ”completely suited me, and I prepared to listen carefully about her incredible miracles ...
“Everything is much easier here than on Earth,” Stella chirped, very pleased with the attention paid, “you just have to forget about the“ level ”at which you still live (!) And focus on what you want to see ... Try to imagine very accurately, and it will come.
I tried to disconnect from all extraneous thoughts - it didn't work. For some reason it was always difficult for me.
Then, finally, everything disappeared somewhere, and I was left hanging in complete emptiness ... There was a feeling of Complete Peace, so rich in its fullness, which it was impossible to experience on Earth ... and became more dense, becoming like a shiny and very dense ball of stars ... Smoothly and slowly, this "ball" began to unravel and grow until it became similar to a gigantic sparkling spiral of stunning beauty, the end of which was "sprayed" by thousands of stars and went where something into the invisible distance ... I was dumbfounded looking at this fabulous unearthly beauty, trying to understand how and where did it come from? .. It never even occurred to me that I really created this in my imagination ... And yet, I I could not get rid of the very strange feeling that this is exactly my real home ...
The Sunda Islands represent an archipelago in Southeast Asia, between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It is located between New Guinea and the Malacca Peninsula. It includes large and many small islands, most of which belong to Indonesia. Kalimantan is the northern part of the island belonging to Malaysia. Part of the island belongs to the state of East Timor, a small part belongs to the state of Brunei. There are over 3000 islands in the archipelago. The area of \u200b\u200bthe archipelago is 1.6 million km². The islands are divided into the Greater Sunda Islands and the Lesser Sunda Islands.
The Big ones include Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi. The Lesser Sunda Islands are Bali, Barat Daya, Lombok, Sumbawa, Sawu, Timor, Flores. The area of \u200b\u200bthe Greater Sunda Islands is 1.5 million km², the area of \u200b\u200bthe Small - 128 thousand km².
Basically, the territory of the islands is mountainous, its rather extensive lowlands in Sumatra and Kalimantan. The archipelago has more than 130 volcanoes and belongs to the zone of seismic activity. The South China and Arafura Seas wash the archipelago from the outside. Inside the archipelago there are inter-island seas - Javan, Sulu, Sulawesi, Sava, Flores, Banda, Seram, Moluccan, Timor seas. Equatorial and marine tropical air prevails here, the temperature in January is + 24 ° С, in July + 32 ° С, constantly high humidity, a large amount of precipitation falls from 2000 to 3000 mm per year. Evergreen forests, with meeting shrouds. The flora and fauna are rich and diverse.
malay archipelago geographic
Greater Sunda Islands
The Greater Sunda Islands (Ind. Kepulauan Sunda Besar, Sund. Kapuloan Sunda Gedé) are a group of islands in Indonesia. Together with the Lesser Sunda Islands, they form the Sunda Archipelago.
The Greater Sunda Islands represent the border between The Pacific Ocean (more precisely one of its seas, the South China Sea) and the Indian Ocean. With a total area of \u200b\u200b1.5 million km² and a population of about 180 million inhabitants, the Greater Sunda Islands are the largest island group in the world (only Greenland is slightly larger in area).
The Greater Sunda Islands include Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Bali and some others. In total, the Malay Archipelago has about 10,000 islands in the Sunda group. The Sunda Archipelago closes the tip of the main fire belt of the Eastern Hemisphere. Indonesia accounts for the most active part of this belt. There are 63 volcanoes here, of which 37 are active.
Notable is the sleeping volcano in the southeast of the island of Luzon, called Mayon ("beautiful"). Its height is 2462 m. Over the past 2 centuries, Mayon has erupted about 20 times.
The large number of victims is explained by the fact that the catastrophe happened exactly on the day when the believers gathered on the volcano for the sacrifice ceremony, performed once every 100 years.
The eruption of Tambora (2821 m) on the island of Sumbawa occurred in 1815. 3 years before this disaster, the volcano showed concern. On its slopes near the summit, numerous cracks formed, from which jets of hot gas hissed out. The gases in the Tambor volcanic channel exploded on April 5, 1815. The volcano had a height of 4 km, but the explosion tore off its top. Almost 100 kmі of rocks turned into fragments, and the height of the hill decreased by 1200 m. At the top of the cone, there was the widest caldera, the depth of which reached 700 m, and the width was 6 x 6.5 km. The roar of a monstrous force was heard within a radius of 1400 km - on Kalimantan, Java, Sulawesi, Timor and other islands.
The largest Sunda Islands are of considerable age. This is part of the landmass of Southeast Asia, largely completed by volcanoes.
Tremors periodically shake the island of Sumbawa, recalling the eruption in 1815 of the highest local volcano, Tam Bora, the geological structure of which is shown. The eruption of Tambora killed 92,000 people.
Approximately 5 million years ago, almost all of these islands had land connections, however, when the level of the World Ocean rose significantly at the end of the Ice Age, land areas immediately became isolated.
The Keli Mutu (Kelimutu) volcano has three craters, each containing a lake with colored water: one is blue, the other is scarlet, the third is milky white. The water in the first two acquired colors due to the salts of copper and iron, and in the third - due to the work of sulfur bacteria.
Since then, volcanic processes have proceeded very rapidly, as a result of which many real volcanic islands have arisen in the vicinity of the former mainland land. Violent volcanism, characteristic of many islands from the Sunda group to this day, significantly affects the local relief, changing their outlines.
An archipelago on the southernmost border of Southeast Asia. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands, it is part of the Malay Archipelago, belonging to Indonesia. There are only about 570 Small Sunda Islands. They are mainly represented by the six largest - Timor, Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Sumba. The inhabitants of the island speak 68 dialects, follow the commandments of different religions, but are convinced that ultimately everything in the world depends on the will of the spirits.
FROM THE OCEAN
The Lesser Sunda Islands are one of the most geologically complex and seismically active regions on our planet.
The Lesser Sunda Islands (Nusa Tenggara, which means "southeastern islands" in Indonesian) consists of nearly 570 islands. 320 of them are so small that they remain unnamed. There are 42 inhabited islands. The archipelago is usually represented by six of them, the largest are Timor, Bali, Lombok, Sumbava, Flores, Sumba. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands (Sumatra, Java, Borneo), they make up the Malay Archipelago, which in turn is part of Indonesia, the world's largest island state. From the north, the island is washed by the Flores Sea and the Banda Sea, from the south - the Timor Sea and other, smaller seas Indian Ocean... The eastern part of itself big island Lesser Sunda Islands - Timor is occupied by the independent state of East Timor (we wrote about it in No. 104 of the Atlas), which also includes several small islands off the coast.
Scientists date the beginning of the geological history of the Small Sunda octpodod to the Paleocene (about 65.5 Ma ago), when some of them appeared on the ocean surface as a result of volcanic processes in the earth's crust at the junction of the Australian and Pacific plates. Another part of the islands of the archipelago is of coral origin. Magma flows that "heated" the islands, born of underwater volcanoes, moved them to the close southern tip of the Eurasian plate. From the interaction of three plates, the islands received new geological metamorphoses, decreased or, on the contrary, increased in size, but finally decided on their location. This can be said about most of the islands of the archipelago, but not all. Flores Island, according to some geologists, was once part of the Australian Plate, although others believe that it is of volcanic origin, because there is a volcano on it, although it is inactive.
This volcano, Kelimutu (1639 m), has three crater lakes, periodically changing color, which is unusually beautiful, but this phenomenon has not yet found an unambiguous scientific explanation. The islands of Sumba, Timor and Babar are also considered the remnants of Australia. It should only be borne in mind that not a single geological theory of the origin of the Lesser Sunda Islands, with the exception of islands with a visible volcanic history, can be called universally recognized in the scientific world. Most of these theories arose quite recently - at the end of the 20th century. - and still need verification. There is also such a theory: part of the islands of the archipelago are fragments of the Eurasian plate. One way or another, but today the islands stand at the junction of the Eurasian and Australian plates and are part of the Sunda mountain arc, which has an outer and inner contour and is surrounded by deep oceanic depressions. This arc is considered part of the Himalayan fold system. The Wallace Line (named after the British geographer and biologist A.R. Wallace, who explored the islands of Indonesia in 1854-1862) runs between the islands of Bali and Lombok - a biogeographic division between the natural systems of South Asia on the one hand and Australia and New Guinea on the other ...
The Lesser Sunda Islands are part of an area of \u200b\u200btectonic activity called the Pacific belt (ring) of fire. In 1815, the Tambora volcano erupted on the island of Sumbawa, which is still considered the most powerful eruption in the world. Its consequences were felt even a year later - 1816 remained in the history of Europe and North America as a "year without summer": there were still clouds of volcanic dust from Tambora that reached these continents. By the time of the eruption, Tambor reached an altitude of 4300 m. Now this figure is 2821 m, but the volcano is active. And the most powerful active volcano of the Lesser Sunda Islands is Rinjani on the island of Lombok. In addition to Lombok and Sumbawa, of the large islands of the archipelago, the most famous island of the archipelago has significant volcanoes - Bali, on it there are two active volcanoes: Agung (3142 m) and Batur (1717 m).
The border between Southeast Asia and Australia is designated by the Burman-Javan, or Sunda, mountain arc. It also includes the Lesser Sunda Islands. The northern ridge of the arc includes islands of volcanic origin - Lombok, Sumbawa, Komodo, Flores, Dembata. The southern ridge - Sumba, Kaby, Rota, Timor, on these islands also find traces of volcanic activity, but very ancient. Small islands of the archipelago are of coral origin. The relief of the large islands is determined by wide, hilly plateaus cut by fast shallow rivers with deep valleys.
CALL OF THE ISLANDS
The Lesser Sunda Islands is one of those places on Earth where the fusion of different cultures took place in a particularly whimsical, although somewhat predictable.
It is believed that homo erectus (erectus man) entered Bali about 1 million years ago, through Sandaland (the Malac Peninsula, the islands of Kalimantan, Java and Sumatra with adjacent islands). Now these parts of the land are located on the continental shelf of Asia, and during the Ice Age they were the southern tip of the continent and the sea level between Java and Bali was significantly lower, if any. In addition, there is evidence of the development of this species of ancient man on other islands in Indonesia.
And the most reliable ancient evidence of the development of Homo sapiens, by Homo sapiens, of the Lesser Sunda Islands - silicon tools, which are about 130 thousand years old, found by archaeologists in East Timor, others, from the bones of elephants extinct here, they are at least 100 thousand years old - on the island of Flores. Migration to the Indonesian islands from Southeast Asia began about 40 thousand years ago. Linguists, based on the linguistic analysis of 68 languages \u200b\u200bof the archipelago, believe that the main wave of migration of the tribes of the Austronesian group from New Guinea and Australia happened about 5000 years ago.
At the same time, domestic animals appear on the islands - goats, pigs, dogs, and later - buffaloes. About 2000 years ago, merchants from China and India reached Timor for the first time. They were primarily interested in white sandalwood, a local endemic, and, of course, spices. They also delivered these goods to the countries of the Middle East and Egypt. Bronze drums (Dongjong culture) from the Indochina Peninsula, 1st century. BC e. - I century, were discovered on the islands of Sumbawa and Roti. In Bali, the first state formations (kingdoms) appeared in the 10th century. In the XIII century. Islam comes here, most likely with Arab merchants. In the XII-XIV centuries. the Islamic kingdoms of Java and Sumatra have repeatedly presented their claims to the islands, but, as a rule, these claims remained unfounded: the rulers had little strength to conquer. The communal ancient way of life on the islands with rituals of worship of the spirits of the mountains, underground forces has survived to this day, and Islam is not at all an obstacle to this, like Catholicism, Protestantism, brought by Europeans in the 16th-17th centuries, and other religions.
In 1522, Magellan's ships landed on Timor (Magellan himself had been killed a year earlier on the Philippine island of Mactan), and in 1610 the Dutch appeared there (the Dutch East India Company). They failed to build a real colony, and they acted on the principle of "divide and rule", supporting one or another local king, and their main interests were in commerce, because of the primacy in which they competed with each other. In 1816 Indonesia entered the Dutch colonies under the name of the Netherlands East Indies. During World War II, in 1942, Japan occupied Indonesia. On August 17, 1945, one of the founders of the Indonesian National Party, Sukarno, proclaimed the independence of Indonesia, and himself - its president. After that, the wars of Sukarno's army began, first with the British, and then with the Dutch troops. The Indonesians won. In 1949, the UN recognized the independence of Indonesia.
The main product produced on the islands is rice (primarily in Bali and Lombok). By the middle of the XX century. the soil of rice plantations began to deplete, and in agriculture, coffee came to the fore, plantations of vanilla, cloves, citrus fruits and exotic flowers expanded. The further development of the Lesser Sunda Islands is primarily associated with tourism, it has become an economic priority since the 1970s. Bali is the leading tourist destination. But something interesting can be found on all the islands of the archipelago. And no one will pass the Komodo Islands, where you can watch a huge monitor lizard - the "Komodo dragon". Lizards of this species also live on other islands - Flores, Rincha, Jili Motang.
FUN FACTS
■ In 2003 on about. Flores, the remains of the skeleton of a miniature go-minid species were found, about 1 m in height and with a brain volume of about 400 cm3, which is three times smaller than the brain of modern humans. This species was called the Man of Flores, although witches immediately stuck the nickname "Hobbit" to it. It is assumed that this species appeared about 95 thousand years ago, and became extinct about 12 thousand years ago due to a volcanic eruption.
■ There are about 230 holidays in Bali, and almost every one of them hosts ceremonial processions symbolizing respect for the gods of the invisible world: if you forget about them, misfortunes will begin in the visible world. The processions are always very colorful, thanks also to the colorful umbrellas, which are extremely popular in Bali. Women carry baskets with gifts to the gods on their heads. And since they do it from an early age, they all have excellent posture as one.
■ According to the legends of the Flores island, the three colored lakes of the Kalimutu volcano are colored for a reason: one lake, dark red, absorbs the dark souls of sorcerers, the second, also red, but lighter, - the souls of sinners; in the waters of the third, most beautiful color - azure, the souls of the innocent - babies and virgins - rest. Souls are constantly worried, so the lakes change the shades of their colors.
ATTRACTIONS
■ O. Timor: Kupang (colonial architecture), Taman Visata Kamplong Nature Reserve.
■ O Bali: temple complex Pura Besakih (Mother's temple) on the slope of the sacred mountain Agung, Taman Ayun - the main temple of the Mengwi kingdom, Pura Ulun Danu temple on Lake Bratan, Tanah Loh temple, Uluwatu temple, where the Kecak dance performance is held, Goa Gad- Ms. - the temple "in the mouth of a demon", Buddhist monastery Brahma Vshara ashram, Botanical garden in the caldera of Batur volcano, Klungkung royal house, Git-Git waterfall, Kavi volcano, Bali Museum, Arts Center.
■ O. Lombok: Chakranegara - Pura Meru Hindu temple, Pura Lingsar temple of three religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam), Ampenan - Maritime Museum, Mayura Park. Royal garden Narmada, Rinjani volcano, Otokokok waterfall.
■ O. Sumbava: Bima - Sultan's Palace (collection of crowns and daggers decorated with precious stones), Subava-Besar - royal palace on stilts, Tambor volcano, National park Mauo.
■ O. Flores: three lakes of the cooled volcano Kelimutu, Larantuca - Portuguese port on the nearby island of Salor.
■ O. Komodo - excursions to the habitats of the Komodo monitor lizard, which grows up to 3 m in length,
■ O. Sumba: megalithic monuments near the villages of Tarung, Pasunga, Sodan and in the vicinity of the city of Waikabubak.
Atlas. The whole world is in your hands № 155
Before you detailed map Western Lesser Sunda Islands with city names and settlements in Russian. Move the map by holding it with the left mouse button. You can move around the map by clicking on one of the four arrows in the upper left corner. You can change the scale by the scale on the right side of the map or by turning the mouse wheel.
In which country is the Western Lesser Sunda Islands located
The Western Lesser Sunda Islands are located in Indonesia. It's wonderful beautiful place, with its own history and traditions. The coordinates of the Western Lesser Sunda Islands are north latitude and east longitude (show on large map).
Virtual walk
The figurine of the "little man" above the scale will help you take a virtual walk through the cities of the Western Lesser Sunda Islands. By clicking and holding the left mouse button, drag it to any place on the map and you will go for a walk, while inscriptions with the approximate address of the area will appear in the upper left corner. Choose the direction of movement by clicking on the arrows in the center of the screen. The Satellite option at the top left allows you to see a relief image of the surface. In Map mode, you can get an in-depth view of the Western Lesser Sunda Islands' roads and main attractions.
