in front of 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 using the scale on the right side of the map or by turning the mouse wheel.
What country is Western Lesser Sunda Islands in?
Western Lesser Sunda Islands is located in Indonesia. It's wonderful a nice place with its own history and traditions. Coordinates of the Western Lesser Sunda Islands: northern latitude and eastern longitude (show on a large map).
virtual walk
The figure of a "little man" above the scale will help you take a virtual walk through the cities of the Western Lesser Sunda Islands. By pressing 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 the relief image of the surface. In the "Map" mode, you will get the opportunity to get acquainted in detail with highways Western Lesser Sunda Islands and the main attractions.
Where are the Greater Sunda Islands located? They belong to the Malay Archipelago. The islands are located in the region between two oceans - the Pacific and the Indian. To the north they border
a brief description of
The area of the islands is slightly more than 1.5 million square meters. km. They consist of 4 major islands, as well as a large number of small ones, such as Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi and others. The Greater Sunda Islands are the largest island group on the planet. About 180 million people live on the islands.
Let's take a closer look at some of the islands from this group.
kalimantan
The largest of the Greater Sunda Islands is Kalimantan (another name is Borneo). Its area is 743 thousand square meters. km. It is one of the three largest islands in the world. Another feature of the island is that its territory is divided between several countries at once: Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia. Kalimantan is washed by 4 seas and 2 straits at once. If we compare all the Greater Sunda Islands, then only Kalimantan is dominated by flat terrain. However, mountainous terrain is also present on this landmass. The most high peak islands - the city of Kinabalu (more than 4 thousand m). Also on the territory of Borneo is the active volcano Bombalai. Relatively densely represented river system. The largest river is the Kapuas. It has a length of more than one thousand kilometers. Other major rivers- Barito, Mahakam, Rajang.
Sumatra
To the west of Kalimantan is located In such a system as the Greater Sunda Islands, it ranks second in size, and sixth in the world ranking. Its area is more than 470 thousand square meters. km. Territorially belongs to the state of Indonesia. The equator border runs along the central part of the island, dividing this piece of land into two identical parts located in different hemispheres. Sumatra has an elongated shape. The southwestern part of the island is dominated by mountainous terrain, where a large number of active volcanoes. Sumatra is a seismically active region of the planet. Earthquakes are not uncommon here. highest point- Kerinci volcano (3800 m). The rest of the island is flat. There are many rivers in Sumatra.
Sulawesi
The third largest island - Sulawesi, has an area of 174 thousand square meters. km. Located east of Kalimantan. It is washed by two seas - Banda and Sulawesi, and the very shape of this island is unique and interesting. It consists of four distinct, elongated peninsulas, joining in the western part. These so-called offshoots are mostly of the flat type. The people live in these areas. central part mountainous, and therefore the connection between the peninsulas is quite complicated.
Java
Describing the Greater Sunda Islands, it is impossible not to talk about Java. This is the smallest of all that are included in this system. Java has an area of about 130 thousand square meters. km. The island is very elongated from east to west. Its length is more than one thousand kilometers. This piece of land belongs to the state and is located on this island. Its central territory is occupied by mountains, the rest is jungle. The population lives mainly on the coast of the island, since there are simply no conditions for a normal life of people away from it.
Conclusion
The Greater Sunda Islands belong to the equatorial climate zone and also have rich flora and fauna. This area is not deprived of minerals. There are large reserves of tin and oil. The population is engaged in tropical agriculture, actively exporting spices, rubber, rice, tea and products from the coconut palm.
Archipelago on the southernmost border South-East Asia. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands, it is part of the Malay Archipelago, which belongs 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.
COMING FROM THE OCEAN
The Lesser Sunda Islands are one of the most geologically complex and seismically active areas of our planet.
The archipelago of the Lesser Sunda Islands (Nusa Tenggara, which means "southeastern islands" in Indonesian) consists of almost 570 islands. 320 of them are so small that they remain nameless. 42 islands are inhabited. The archipelago is usually represented by six of them, the largest are Timor, Bali, Lombok, Sum-bawa, Flores, Sumba. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands (Sumatra, Java, Borneo), they make up the Malay Archipelago, and it, in turn, is part of Indonesia, the largest in the world. island nation. From the north, the islands are washed by the Flores Sea and the Banda Sea, from the south by the Timor Sea and others, more shallow seas Indian Ocean. Eastern part most big island Lesser Sunda Islands - Timor occupies independent state East Timor (we wrote about it in Atlas No. 104), it also includes several small islands off the coast.
Scientists date the beginning of the geological history of the Lesser Sunda octpodods to the Paleocene (about 65.5 million years 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. The magma flows that "warmed up" the islands, born of underwater volcanoes, moved them to the close southern tip of the Eurasian plate. From the interaction of already three plates, the islands received new geological metamorphoses, decreased or, on the contrary, grew in size, but finally decided on the 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, though inactive, on it.
This volcano, Kelimutu (1639 m), has three crater lake, periodically changing color, which is unusually beautiful, but this phenomenon has not yet been found an unambiguous scientific explanation. The islands of Sumba, Timor and Babar are also considered to be shards 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 generally accepted in scientific world. Most of these theories arose quite recently - at the end of the 20th century. - still need to be tested. 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 external and internal contour and is surrounded by deep oceanic depressions. This arc is considered part of the Himalayan fold system. Between the islands of Bali and Lombok runs the Wallace Line (named after the British geographer and biologist A.R. Wallace, who explored the islands of Indonesia in 1854-1862) - a biogeographic section 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 the area of tectonic activity called the Pacific belt (ring) of fire. In 1815, 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 a summer": Tambora's volcanic dust clouds that had reached these continents were still in charge. By the time of the eruption, Tambora reached a height of 4300 m. Now this figure is 2821 m, but the volcano is active. And the most powerful active volcano in the Lesser Sunda Islands is Rinjani on the island of Lombok. In addition to Lombok and Sumbawa, among the large islands of the archipelago, Bali, the most famous island, has significant volcanoes, it has two active volcano: Agung (3142 m) and Batur (1717 m).
The border between Southeast Asia and Australia is marked by the Burmese-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, Kabi, Rota, Timor, traces of volcanic activity are also found on these islands, but very ancient. The small islands of the archipelago are of coral origin. The relief of the large islands is defined 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 merging of different cultures took place in a particularly whimsical, although to some extent predictable.
It is believed that homo erectus (upright man) entered Bali about 1 million years ago, through Sandaland (the Malay 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 mainland and the sea level between Java and Bali was much lower, if at all. In addition, there is evidence of the development of this species ancient man other islands of Indonesia.
And the most reliable ancient evidence of the development of Homo sapiens, a reasonable man, of the Lesser Sunda Islands is flint tools, which are about 130 thousand years old, found by archaeologists in East Timor, others, from the bones of elephants that have died out here, they are at least 100 thousand years old, - on the island of Flores. About 40 thousand years ago, migration to the Indonesian islands from Southeast Asia began. Linguists, based on a linguistic analysis of 68 languages of 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 2,000 years ago, Timor was first reached by seafaring merchants from China and India. 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 (Dongzhong culture) from the Indochina peninsula, 1st c. BC e. - I century, were found 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. More than once, the Islamic kingdoms of Java and Sumatra made their claims to the islands, but, as a rule, these claims remained unfounded: the rulers had few forces for conquest. The communal ancient way of life on the islands with rituals of worshiping the spirits of the mountains, underground forces has survived to this day, and Islam is not at all an obstacle to this, like Catholicism and Protestantism, brought by Europeans in the 16th-17th centuries, and other religions.
In 1522, Magellan's ships landed in Timor (Magellan himself had been killed a year earlier on the Philippine island of Mactan), and in 1610 the Dutch (the Dutch East India Company) appeared there. 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 became part of the Dutch colonies under the name of the Netherlands East Indies. During World War II, in 1942, Japan occupied Indonesia. On August 17, 1945, Sukarno, one of the founders of the Indonesian National Party, proclaimed the independence of Indonesia and himself its president. After that, the wars of Sukarno's army began, first with the English, 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 coffee came to the fore in agriculture, plantations of vanilla, cloves, citrus fruits and exotic flowers expanded. Further development 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 bypasses 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.
CURIOUS FACTS
■ In 2003, on about. Flores, the skeletal remains of a miniature hominid species were discovered, about 1 m tall and with a brain volume of about 400 cm3, which is three times smaller than the brain modern man. This species was called the Floresian Man, although the wits immediately stuck the nickname "Hobbit" to it. It is assumed that this species appeared about 95 thousand years ago, and died out about 12 thousand years ago due to a volcanic eruption.
■ There are about 230 holidays in Bali, and on almost every one of them there are 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 colored umbrellas, which are extremely popular in Bali. Women carry baskets with gifts to the gods on their heads. And since they do this from early youth, they all have excellent posture as one.
■ According to the legends of the island of Flores, the three colored lakes of the Kalimutu volcano are painted 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 innocents - babies and virgins rest. Souls are constantly worried, so the lakes change shades of their colors.
ATTRACTIONS
■ O. Timor: Kupang (colonial architecture), Taman Visata Kamplong Nature Reserve.
■ O. Bali: temple complex Pura Besakih (Mother Temple) on the slope sacred mountain Agung, Taman Ayun - main temple Kingdom of Mengwi, Pura Ulun Danu temple on Lake Bratan, Tanah Loh temple Uluwatu temple, where the performance of the kechak dance takes place, Goa Gaja - the temple "in the mouth of the demon", Buddhist monastery Brahma Vshara ashram, Botanical garden in the caldera of Batur volcano, Royal house Klungkung, Git-Git waterfall, Kawi volcano, Bali Museum, Art Center.
■ O. Lombok: Chakranegara - the Hindu temple of Pura Meru, the temple of three religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam) Pura Lingsar, Ampenan - the Maritime Museum, Mayura Park. Narmada Royal Garden, Rinjani Volcano, Otokokok Waterfall.
■ O. Sumbawa: city of Bima - Sultan's Palace (collection of crowns and daggers adorned with precious stones), city of Subawa-Besar - Royal Palace on stilts, Tambora volcano, national park Mauo.
■ O. Flores: the three lakes of the cooled down Kelimutu volcano, Larantuka, a 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
The Sunda Islands represent an archipelago in Southeast Asia - it is between the Pacific and Indian Ocean. It is located between New Guinea and the Malay Peninsula. It consists of large and many small islands, most of which belong to Indonesia. Kalimantan - Northern part islands 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 more than 3,000 islands in the archipelago. The area of the 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, Savu, Timor, Flores. The area of the Big Sunda Islands is 1.5 million km², the area of the Small ones is 128 thousand km².
Basically, the territory of the islands is mountainous, its lowlands are quite extensive 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. Within the archipelago there are inter-island seas - Java, Sulu, Sulawesi, Savu, Flores, Banda, Seram, Moluccas, Timor. Equatorial and marine tropical air dominates here, the temperature in January is + 24 ° C, in July + 32 ° C, constantly high humidity, a large amount of precipitation falls from 2000 to 3000 mm per year. Evergreen forests, with occasional shrouds. vegetable and animal world rich and varied.
Malay archipelago geographic
Greater Sunda Islands
The Greater Sunda Islands (Indon. Kepulauan Sunda Besar, Sun. Kapuloan Sunda Gedй) are a group of islands within Indonesia. Together with the Lesser Sunda Islands, they form the Sunda Archipelago.
The Greater Sunda Islands represent the boundary between Pacific Ocean(more precisely, one of its seas, the South China Sea) and the Indian Ocean. WITH with total area 1.5 million km² and a population of about 180 million inhabitants, the Greater Sunda Islands are the largest island group in the world (only Greenland slightly surpasses them 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 fiery 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.
A dormant volcano in the southeast of the island of Luzon, called Mayon (“beautiful”), is noteworthy. 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 occurred on the very day when believers gathered on the volcano for the ceremony of sacrifice, performed once every 100 years.
The eruption of Tambora (2821 m) on the island of Sumbawa occurred in 1815. For 3 years before this disaster, the volcano showed concern. Numerous cracks formed on its slopes near the top, from which jets of hot gas hissed. The gases in the Tambora volcanic channel exploded on April 5, 1815. The volcano had a height of 4 km, but the explosion tore off its top. Almost 100 km² of rocks turned into debris, and the height of the hill was reduced by 1200 m. In place of 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. A monstrous roar was heard within a radius of 1400 km - in Kalimantan, Java, Sulawesi, Timor and other islands.
The largest Sunda Islands are of considerable age. This is part of the land of Southeast Asia, largely completed by volcanoes.
Tremors periodically shake the island of Sumbawa, reminiscent of the eruption in 1815 of the highest local volcano, Tambora, geological structure which is shown. The Tambora eruption 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, the land areas immediately became isolated.
The volcano Keli Mutu (Kelimutu) has three craters, in each there is 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 salts of copper and iron, and in the third - due to the work of sulfurous bacteria.
Since then, volcanic processes have proceeded very rapidly, as a result of which many real volcanic islands have arisen in the neighborhood 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.
A chain stretching east of the Indonesian island of Java is home to unique plants and animals. So, in the dense forests covering the territory of the islands, Rafflesia Arnoldi grows - the largest flower in the world, whose diameter reaches 1 m and weighs more than 10 kg. It is interesting that this plant does not have roots, stem and leaves as such: it all consists of a giant flower that exudes a disgusting smell of rotten meat.
There is also another unusual plant called sweet hovenia, or candy tree. Its fruits - inconspicuous dry balls - are inedible, but their thick stalks contain up to 50% sucrose and taste like raisins soaked in rum.
Terrible monsters live on Komodo Island, which is also part of the system, very similar in appearance to prehistoric lizards. We are talking about giant reptiles - monitor lizards, which, at the behest of the Dutch pilot, who was the first European to encounter them in 1911, are referred to as "the dragons of Komodo Island." The name is quite justified: monitor lizards reach a length of 3.5 m and weigh about 150 kg. The appetite of the monsters is brutal: four-centimeter teeth allow them to easily tear the meat into pieces, and then swallow them. There is a case when a hungry monitor ate a whole half of a wild boar carcass. And once, four dragons dealt with the corpse of a large deer in about an hour.
Inanimate nature also presents many miracles. What are they worth colorful lakes Keli Mutu, located on the island of Flores! The huge depressions of the Keli Lepembusu volcano were gradually filled with rainwater, and thus amazing reservoirs arose, each of which is characterized by a special color of water. The first lake - Tivoye Ata Polo (Lake of Enchanted People) - is purple-red, the second - Tivoye Noza Moeri Koo Fai (Lake of Boys and Maidens) - is dark green, and the waters of the third - Tivoye Ata Mboepoe - are distinguished by transparency and delicate malachite green color . How did the water in the lakes, located at a distance of 10-15 m from each other, acquire such a different color?
The fact is that the rocks that form the bottom and shores of the first lake contain a lot of iron. Dissolving in water, it reacts with atmospheric oxygen and forms iron oxide, which has a reddish-brown color. The lava that makes up the basins of the other two lakes differs from that indicated in terms of chemical composition.
Of course, there are legends among the locals that explain in their own way the unusual color of the water in the Keli Mutu lakes. But no matter how you approach this issue, the reservoirs will still not lose their originality, being real natural phenomena.
