Madagascar was one of the last large habitable landmasses that humans colonised. For millennia it was uninhabited, and its wildlife evolved without human predators. The first permanent settlers arrived, according to archaeological and linguistic evidence, at some point around the middle of the first millennium AD —the usual estimates range from the 1st to the 7th century—, and their origin is one of the great solved mysteries of human history: they didn't come from nearby Africa, but from Southeast Asia.
They were Austronesian peoples who set sail from the Indonesian archipelago, most likely from Borneo. They crossed thousands of kilometres of the Indian Ocean in outrigger canoes, bringing with them rice, bananas, sugar cane and the terraced rice-paddy techniques that still define the landscape of the Highlands. The strongest proof of that origin is the language: Malagasy belongs to the Austronesian family, and its closest relative is Maanyan, spoken by a Dayak community in the interior of Borneo, more than 7,000 kilometres away.
Between the 7th and 13th centuries, waves of Bantu peoples from East Africa joined that Asian base, bringing zebu cattle —central to Malagasy culture today—, vocabulary and physical and cultural traits. Later, Arab and Swahili traders also left their mark, especially in the northwest and along the coast, influencing the sorabe script, the calendar and divination. From that unique fusion of Asia and Africa, built up over centuries, a single people emerged, the Malagasy, with one common language despite being spread across some twenty regional groups, from the Merina and Betsileo of the plateau to the Sakalava, Antandroy or Vezo of the coasts.
Long before the Highlands dominated the island, power lay on the coasts. From the 16th century onwards, along the western seaboard facing the Mozambique Channel, the Sakalava empire rose up, the largest of its time: the kingdoms of Menabe, around present-day Morondava, and Boina, further north, controlled vast territories thanks to cattle, the trade in slaves and weapons with Indian Ocean merchants, and a monarchy sustained by the cult of the relics of dead kings.
On the east coast, history took an unusual turn with the arrival of the pirates. Between the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the island of Sainte-Marie (Nosy Boraha) and other eastern anchorages became a refuge for European buccaneers who raided the treasure-laden ships of the India route; at its peak, more than a thousand pirates are estimated to have operated in the area. From the unions between these adventurers and Malagasy women came a mixed-race lineage, the zana-malata.
One of them, Ratsimilaho —son, according to tradition, of the English pirate Thomas Tew and a Malagasy princess—, united the scattered peoples of the eastern coast around 1712 into the Betsimisaraka confederation, whose name means "the many inseparable". His kingdom stretched along more than 300 kilometres of coastline and prospered through trade, but after his death, around 1750, it began to break apart. It was in that context that, in 1750, the island of Sainte-Marie was ceded to France by Princess Bety, Ratsimilaho's daughter: a first, small French foothold on the island that foreshadowed, more than a century in advance, what was to come.
The great turning point in Malagasy history came from the heart of the island. In the central Highlands, the region of Imerina had spent almost eight decades split apart by civil wars until an exceptional ruler reunified it. Andrianampoinimerina, who reigned from 1787 to 1810, brought together the rival kingdoms of the plateau towards the end of the 18th century and proclaimed an ambition that would become famous: that the sea should be the only border of his kingdom ("Ny ranomasina no valaparitr'ny taniko").
Andrianampoinimerina was as much a statesman as a conqueror. He organised the administration and justice system, regulated the markets —the great zoma of Antananarivo— and drove the building of rice paddies and dykes that turned the plateau into the kingdom's granary. He set up his capital in Antananarivo and made the nearby hill of Ambohimanga the spiritual centre of the dynasty. On his death, he left his son the task of finishing the job.
That son, Radama I (1810-1828), took unification much further. He allied himself with the British —then masters of neighbouring Mauritius—, who recognised him as "King of Madagascar" in exchange for abolishing the export of slaves; he received military instructors, weapons and missionaries. With a modernised army he subdued a large share of the coastal peoples and came to control around two thirds of the island. Missionaries from the London Missionary Society introduced the printing press, wrote Malagasy down in the Latin alphabet, opened schools and translated the Bible. When Radama died in 1828, aged just 35, the Kingdom of Madagascar was an internationally recognised power in the midst of westernisation.
The death of Radama I opened an era of dramatic swings. He was succeeded by one of his wives, Ranavalona I, who reigned from 1828 to 1861 with an iron fist. Wary of growing foreign influence, she reversed the opening-up: she expelled the missionaries, banned Christianity and harshly persecuted Malagasy converts, many of whom were executed or subjected to the tangena, a trial by poison. Her long and often brutal reign sought to preserve the kingdom's independence and traditions against Europe, at the price of severe isolation.
Her son Radama II (1861-1863) reversed that policy: he restored religious freedom and reopened the country to Europeans, but his rule lasted barely two years, until he was assassinated in a palace coup. From then on, real power passed in practice to the prime ministers, above all Rainilaiarivony, who governed for more than three decades by successively marrying three queens —Rasoherina, Ranavalona II and Ranavalona III—. Under Ranavalona II, in 1869, the court converted to Christianity and it became the state religion.
The kingdom modernised —legal codes, schools, an army— but lived under mounting pressure. France, already established in coastal enclaves, was claiming influence over the island. A first Franco-Malagasy war (1883-1885) ended by imposing a nominal protectorate that Antananarivo never fully accepted. A decade later, the tension would lead to the final invasion and the end of Malagasy independence.
In 1895 a French expeditionary force landed on the northwest coast and marched on Antananarivo; after a siege, the capital fell. In 1896 France declared Madagascar a colony, and the following year it abolished the monarchy and exiled the last queen, Ranavalona III, first to Réunion and then to Algeria, where she died in exile. General Joseph Gallieni, the first governor, crushed the menalamba ("red shawls") resistance and carried out a policy of "pacification" that dismantled the structures of the old kingdom.
Colonial rule brought roads, railways and plantations of coffee, vanilla and cloves, but built on forced labour, taxes that pushed Malagasy people into work for pitiful wages, and land seizures. Vanilla made the island the world's leading producer, a position it still holds. As in so many colonies, tens of thousands of Malagasy were recruited to fight for France in both world wars, and came home with new ideas about freedom.
The explosion came on the night of 29 March 1947. A nationalist uprising, linked to the MDRM party, spread mainly across the east of the island. The French repression was devastating: it lasted more than a year and combined executions, burned villages, torture and deportations. The death toll is still debated by historians: estimates range from several tens of thousands to much higher figures, and for decades France played down the scale of the killing; it is better to give the range than a single fixed number. Far from snuffing out the independence movement, the 1947 massacre burned it into the national memory.
Post-war African decolonisation paved the way. In the 1958 referendum on the French Community, Madagascar voted to stay in as an autonomous republic, a transitional step towards full sovereignty. Finally, on 26 June 1960, the island gained independence, with Philibert Tsiranana as the first president of the First Republic. Tsiranana kept close ties with France through a series of agreements, a closeness that over the years would cost him popular support.
Discontent over economic stagnation and dependence on Paris led to the 1972 revolts, which forced Tsiranana out. After a period of military transition, Didier Ratsiraka came to power in 1975, proclaimed a socialist-leaning Second Republic, nationalised the economy and aligned the country with the Soviet bloc under the "Charter of the Socialist Revolution". The experiment ended in economic crisis and isolation; by the late 1980s, Madagascar was one of the poorest countries in the world.
The huge pro-democracy protests of 1991 forced an opening and led, in 1992, to a multi-party Third Republic. Since then Malagasy politics has been unstable, marked by disputed presidencies and recurring crises: Albert Zafy, the return and fall of Ratsiraka after the contested 2001 election, and above all the clash between Marc Ravalomanana and Andry Rajoelina, which in 2009 ended in an army-backed coup, more than a hundred deaths and years of international isolation and sanctions. The country returned to constitutional order with the 2013 elections, but the same figures went on dominating the political scene in the years that followed.
Madagascar is at once one of the planet's natural treasures and one of its poorest countries, a paradox that defines its present. Isolated for tens of millions of years, the island developed extraordinary biodiversity: around 90% of its species exist nowhere else. The lemurs —more than a hundred species, from the tiny mouse lemur to the indri singing in the rainforest—, the chameleons, the baobabs and entire forests of endemic plants make it a "laboratory of evolution" and one of the world's great nature destinations.
That heritage is in danger. Deforestation, driven mainly by slash-and-burn farming (tavy), illegal logging of precious woods and hunting, has shrunk the original forests to a fraction and threatens the lemurs, considered the most endangered group of mammals on Earth. A network of national parks —Andasibe, Isalo, Ranomafana, the Tsingy de Bemaraha, Montagne d'Ambre— tries to protect what remains, and ecotourism has become a vital source of income and a powerful argument for conservation.
On the human side, the challenge is huge. Despite its natural wealth and producing much of the world's vanilla, Madagascar ranks among the countries with the highest share of people in extreme poverty, hit by political instability, ever more intense cyclones, drought in the south and a fragile economy. With nearly thirty million inhabitants, most of them young, the country faces the task of protecting its one-of-a-kind nature without condemning its people. Its culture —ancestor worship and the famadihana or "turning of the bones", music, zebu cattle, the hospitality of fihavanana— remains the thread that binds a unique people, born from the meeting of two oceans of history.
The 5 histories, one after another. Use the buttons above to jump to the one you want.
Antananarivo —"Tana" to everyone— was born as the capital of the kingdom of Imerina and is still Madagascar's centre of gravity. Its name means "the city of the thousand", in memory of the thousand warriors who, according to tradition, defended it. King Andrianjaka founded it in the early 17th century on the highest hill of the plateau, and from then on it grew down its slopes until today it sprawls over twelve sacred hills at about 1,280 metres above sea level.
At the top, crowning the city, stands the Rova, the royal palace of the Merina rulers and symbol of the monarchy that unified the island. It was the residence of Andrianampoinimerina, Radama I and the 19th-century queens. A fire ravaged the complex in 1995, but its restoration keeps it as the great national monument. Below it, the Haute-Ville with its steep lanes and stairways, the churches, Lake Anosy and the bustling Analakely market make up a chaotic and charming capital.
As the seat of the kingdom and later of colonial and republican power, Tana was the stage for almost every decisive episode in Malagasy history: the court's conversion to Christianity, its fall to the French in 1895, the 1972 revolts and the modern political crises. Today, with several million people in its metropolitan area, it is the country's administrative, economic and cultural heart and the near-inevitable gateway for anyone arriving on the island.
About 20 kilometres from the capital rises Ambohimanga, "the blue hill" or "the beautiful hill", the most sacred place of the Merina people. This was one of the kingdom's original capitals, and here Andrianampoinimerina, the unifier of Imerina, was born and ruled. For centuries it was the royal and spiritual city of the dynasty, a site of royalty and burial laden with taboos (fady).
The compound preserves palisades, stone gateways guarded by huge discs that were rolled across to close them, sacred pools, royal tombs and Andrianampoinimerina's own wooden house, a single-room building where you can see his bed, his water jars and even the hearth. The whole site conveys the close bond between the Merina monarchy, its ancestors and the land.
In 2001, UNESCO added the Royal Hill of Ambohimanga to the World Heritage List, recognising it as the most powerful symbol of Malagasy national identity and as a place of worship that is still alive: every year, pilgrims climb up to ask the spirits of the kings for blessings. It is the spiritual counterpart to nearby Antananarivo, the seat of political power.
South of the capital, on the RN7 road, Antsirabe is the country's third city and one of the most distinctive on the plateau. Its name means "the place where there is much salt", a nod to its mineral waters. It was founded in 1872 by Norwegian missionaries looking for a cool, healthy climate, and it soon became a spa town: its hot springs drew European settlers and officials who summered there to escape the heat of the coast.
From that era remain the colonial architecture, the grand spa hotels and the feel of a resort town frozen in time. Antsirabe is famous today for its pousse-pousse, the colourful man-pulled rickshaws that are the emblem of local transport, and for its craft workshops: semi-precious stones are cut here —the region is rich in minerals—, zebu horn is worked, and miniatures and toys are made from recycled materials.
Surrounded by legend-filled volcanic lakes such as Tritriva and Andraikiba, and by a landscape of rice paddies and fields, Antsirabe is also an important farming and industrial centre, home to breweries and dairies. It blends the legacy of European colonisation with the bustling life of a Malagasy plateau city.
Further south, on the edge of Betsileo country, Ambositra is the capital of Malagasy handicrafts. The small town, with its houses of carved balconies and shutters, is the trading hub for a unique art: the woodcarving and marquetry of the Zafimaniry, a group living in the forested mountains nearby who have kept alive an ornamental tradition inherited from the first settlers of the plateau.
The Zafimaniry cover almost everything they make with geometric patterns: wooden houses assembled without a single nail, doors, shutters, stools, utensils. Each design carries a meaning linked to nature, the ancestors and the community's beliefs. In 2003, UNESCO inscribed this knowledge on the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, recognising it as the last living testimony of a woodworking technique that was once widespread across the whole plateau.
In Ambositra's workshops and shops, travellers find that heritage turned into objects: marquetry, inlaid boxes, sculptures and furniture. The town is also a natural stop on the RN7 between the Highlands and the south, set in a landscape of hills, rice paddies and forests that for centuries was the border between the Merina and Betsileo kingdoms.
Battered by the trade winds and cyclones, Madagascar's eastern seaboard is the wettest and greenest part of the island. This was the domain of the Betsimisaraka confederation, "the many inseparable". Ratsimilaho, of mixed descent, unified it in the early 18th century along more than 300 kilometres of coastline, and it prospered through trade before breaking apart. Today the Betsimisaraka are still one of the most numerous peoples in the country, living from fishing, rice and export crops such as cloves and vanilla.
This humid strip holds Madagascar's last great lowland rainforests, a treasure trove of biodiversity. Several of its forest blocks make up the Rainforests of the Atsinanana, listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 2007 for their irreplaceable role in the evolution of the island's wildlife and plants. But they are also on the List of World Heritage in Danger, threatened by illegal logging of precious woods and by deforestation.
The region's main hub is the port of Toamasina (Tamatave), the most important in the country, together with the Pangalanes Canal, a waterway of lagoons and rivers running parallel to the coast that was developed for transport in colonial times. This is humid, tropical Madagascar, very different from the plateau, where the forest reaches almost to the sea.
A few hours from Antananarivo along the road east, the Andasibe-Mantadia area protects one of Madagascar's most accessible and famous rainforests. Its big star is the indri, the largest living lemur in the world. It is a black-and-white animal with barely any tail, which Malagasy people call babakoto and surround with respect and legends: according to many local traditions, killing an indri is forbidden by a fady, because it is considered a relative of humans.
The most astonishing thing about the indri is its voice. Every morning, family groups mark their territory with a powerful, melancholy song that carries for kilometres through the forest, one of the most extraordinary sounds in the animal kingdom. Hearing the indri and watching them leap between the trees is what draws travellers from all over the world to the Analamazaotra Special Reserve and the neighbouring Mantadia National Park.
Besides the indri, these forests are home to other lemur species, chameleons (including the tiny Brookesia), colourful frogs, orchids and a rich nightlife you can discover on torchlit walks. Being so close to the capital has made Andasibe the perfect introduction to Malagasy nature and a model of community ecotourism that supports the surrounding villages.
Off the northeast coast, the long, narrow island of Sainte-Marie (Nosy Boraha in Malagasy) holds one of Madagascar's most storybook histories. Between the late 17th and early 18th centuries it was one of the main refuges for Indian Ocean pirates, who attacked ships on the route to the Indies from its coves. At its peak, more than a thousand pirates are said to have used it. In one of the island's bays a pirate cemetery survives, with graves marked by skulls, and the remains of several ships lie in its waters.
This is also where colonial history took one of its first steps. In 1750 Princess Bety, daughter of the Betsimisaraka king Ratsimilaho and a Sakalava princess, ceded the island to France, which turned it into an early outpost. That small gesture came more than a century before the colonisation of the whole main island.
Today Sainte-Marie is a tropical paradise of palm-fringed beaches, fishing villages and an easy pace of life. But its big event is a natural one: every year, between July and September, hundreds of humpback whales arrive in its warm waters from Antarctica to mate and give birth, and the island becomes one of the best places on the planet to watch them breach. From pirate nest to whale sanctuary, it sums up the ups and downs of the east coast.
Nosy Be ("big island" in Malagasy) is Madagascar's main tourist destination, a tropical paradise off the northwest coast in the waters of the Mozambique Channel. With white-sand beaches, coral reefs and a warm, clear sea, it is the perfect base for diving and snorkelling. Nearby islets include Nosy Komba, the "lemur island", and tiny Nosy Tanikely, now a marine park.
It is known as the "perfume island" for its ylang-ylang plantations. The tree's flowers yield an essential oil highly prized by French perfumers, and their sweet scent fills the island's air. Alongside ylang-ylang grow sugar cane, vanilla, coffee and spices, a legacy of the plantation farming that flourished here in colonial times. Before the French, Nosy Be was linked to the Sakalava kingdom of Boina and to Indian Ocean trade, and Arab, Indian and Comorian influences made it a mixed, cosmopolitan place.
Today Nosy Be lives mainly from tourism, with resorts, boat trips and rich marine life that includes whale and whale shark watching in season. It is Madagascar's most relaxed and sunny side, though it also faces the challenge of balancing tourism development with protecting its reefs and environment.
At the island's northern tip, Antsiranana, better known by its colonial name of Diego Suarez, looks out over one of the largest and most beautiful bays in the world. This huge, sheltered natural harbour gave the town exceptional strategic value for centuries. The European name recalls the Portuguese navigators who reached these shores in the 16th century.
Its magnificent bay made it a coveted naval base. The French set up one of their main military outposts here in colonial times. During the Second World War the town was the scene of the Battle of Madagascar (1942), when British forces seized it to stop Japan from using it as a base, in one of the war's amphibious operations in the Indian Ocean.
Today Antsiranana is a port town with somewhat faded colonial architecture and a cosmopolitan mix of Malagasy, French, Indian, Arab and Comorian influences. It is the gateway to some of the most spectacular scenery in the north: the turquoise waters of the Emerald Sea, the red tsingy of eroded clay, the grey tsingy of Ankarana and the unspoilt beaches and bays of a region that is still little explored.
Close to Diego Suarez, Amber Mountain National Park (Montagne d'Ambre) protects an island of rainforest that rises, green and cool, over a volcanic massif in an otherwise dry region. The altitude traps clouds and moisture, creating a microclimate that sustains a lush montane forest quite unlike its surroundings. It was one of Madagascar's first protected areas: the French created a reserve here as early as 1958.
The park is famous for its waterfalls and crater lakes hidden among the vegetation, and for its varied endemic wildlife, which is easy to see. There are lemurs such as the crowned sifaka and Sanford's brown lemur and, above all, chameleons, including the Brookesia, one of the smallest reptiles in the world, small enough to sit on a fingertip. Frogs, endemic birds, orchids and ferns complete a very rich ecosystem.
Its closeness to Antsiranana and its well-kept trails make Amber Mountain an ideal outing to discover the nature of the north without a long journey. Together with Nosy Be and the bays of the far north, it is part of one of Madagascar's most beautiful and biodiverse regions, where tropical sea and highland forest sit just a few kilometres apart.
Route Nationale 7 is Madagascar's most famous road: nearly a thousand kilometres linking Antananarivo with Toliara (Tuléar) in the southwest, crossing the country from the cool Highlands down to the warm plains along the Mozambique Channel. Built in colonial times to connect the capital with the southwestern coast, it is today the classic travellers' route, the one most people take when they explore the island overland.
Along the RN7 unfolds a whole sample of landscapes and peoples: the terraced rice paddies and brick houses of the Merina highlands, Betsileo country with its vineyards and tombs hanging from the cliffs, the savannah, the sandstone massifs and, at the end, the arid land of the Mahafaly and Vezo peoples. It is also a parade of the great parks of the south, spaced out along the road.
Travelling it means understanding Madagascar's diversity along a single route: the climate, vegetation, architecture, crops and regional languages all change as you descend towards the sea. The RN7 is not just a road but the thread that stitches the south of the country together.
Fianarantsoa ("the town where good is learned") is the historic capital of the Betsileo, the second people of the Highlands after the Merina, famous as expert rice farmers who carved whole hillsides into terraces. The town was founded around 1830 during the reign of Ranavalona I as the administrative centre of the Merina kingdom in the south. It keeps an upper town of cobbled lanes, churches and old houses that has earned it a reputation as one of the most picturesque in the country.
The region is also the heart of Madagascar's wine country. European missionaries brought the vine in the 19th century, and the hills around Fianarantsoa and Ambalavao produce Malagasy wines, a tropical rarity. Nearby is Ambalavao, known for handmade Antaimoro paper, crafted from bark and flowers using a technique of Arab origin, and for its large zebu market.
From Fianarantsoa departs one of Africa's most spectacular train journeys: the narrow-gauge FCE line that winds down to Manakara on the east coast, through rainforest and past waterfalls, crossing dozens of tunnels and bridges. Built in colonial times, it is still the only link for many villages and a legendary adventure for travellers.
East of Fianarantsoa, where the plateau drops steeply towards the coast, Ranomafana National Park protects one of Madagascar's richest montane rainforests. Its name means "hot water", after the area's thermal springs. The park grew out of a scientific discovery: in 1986 the golden bamboo lemur, a species unknown until then, was found there, and that find led to the creation of the protected area in 1991.
The researcher Patricia Wright played a key role in that process, which brought conservation and research together and gave rise to a leading scientific centre. Ranomafana is home to a dozen lemur species, including the rare golden bamboo lemur and the greater bamboo lemur, both threatened. It also has chameleons, frogs, birds and lush plant life, from ferns to orchids. Its damp trails and night walks in search of endemic creatures have made it one of the parks naturalists love most.
Since 2007 Ranomafana has been part of the Rainforests of the Atsinanana, listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site for their unique value in understanding how Malagasy biodiversity evolved. It shows how ecotourism can pay for the protection of an ecosystem while also supporting local communities.
Further south along the RN7, Isalo National Park offers one of Madagascar's most striking landscapes. It is a Jurassic sandstone massif that millions of years of erosion have carved into deep canyons, plateaus, spires and strange shapes, with natural pools of crystal-clear water and palm oases at the bottom of the gorges. Created in 1962, it is one of the oldest and most visited parks in the country.
Isalo is the land of the Bara, zebu herders of the south, for whom the massif is sacred: in the sandstone walls and crevices they keep tombs and ritual sites, and many spots are subject to taboos. The landscape combines the dryness of the surrounding savannah with the humid microclimates of the canyons, where endemic plants such as aloes and pandanus grow, and where lemurs such as the sifaka and the ring-tailed lemur take refuge.
Above all, it is a trekking paradise: trails climb to viewpoints over the canyons, and there is the famous "Natural Pool", the Window of Isalo where the sun sets, and camping under the stars. Its mix of spectacular geology, wildlife and Bara culture has made it one of the star stages of any trip through the south.
At the end of the RN7, on the coast of the Mozambique Channel, the road reaches Toliara (Tuléar) and its sandy shoreline. North of the town, the village of Ifaty is a gateway to the world of the Vezo, the semi-nomadic fishing people of the southwest who have lived from the sea for centuries. They sail outrigger canoes (lakana) identical to those that carried the first Austronesians, and they keep a deep knowledge of the reef and the tides.
Off Ifaty lies one of the largest coral reef systems in the Indian Ocean, ideal for snorkelling and diving in warm, turquoise water. On land, the scenery changes completely. This is where the southwestern spiny forest begins, a unique drought-adapted vegetation dominated by baobabs, octopus trees (Didierea) and thorny plants. It is an endemic ecosystem found nowhere else on the planet.
Ifaty is the third face of southern Madagascar: after the cool highlands and the dry canyons comes the tropical coast. It is a place of quiet beaches, sunsets over the Mozambique Channel and encounters with Vezo culture, in a warm, bright region that contrasts with the Highlands where the great road begins.
Morondava is the main town on the central-west coast and the gateway to western Madagascar. It sits on the Mozambique Channel in the Menabe region, the historic heart of the Sakalava kingdom of Menabe. From the 17th century, Menabe was one of the two great Sakalava states that dominated the island's entire western seaboard, thanks to cattle, trade and a monarchy upheld by the cult of royal relics.
The town is quiet, with low-rise houses, and lives from fishing, rice and tourism. It is a comfortable base for exploring the surroundings: the channels and mangroves of the delta, the Vezo and Sakalava fishing villages and, above all, the baobabs, the region's great natural emblem. The Sakalava keep living traditions such as ancestor worship and tromba rites, in which people are possessed by the spirits of former kings.
Morondava also shows how fragile Madagascar's coasts are: sea erosion has eaten away part of the old town, pushing it inland. Even so, it remains the essential starting point for one of the most photographed routes in the country, the one leading to the Avenue of the Baobabs and, beyond, to Tsingy de Bemaraha.
A few kilometres from Morondava, a stretch of dirt road lined with a row of giant baobabs creates Madagascar's most iconic image: the Avenue of the Baobabs. These trees belong to the endemic species Adansonia grandidieri, the largest of the Malagasy baobabs. They rise to about 30 metres with massive trunks and flat crowns, and many are several centuries old, some more than 800 years.
The baobabs are witnesses to a landscape that no longer exists. They once grew inside a dense tropical forest that deforestation gradually cleared for rice paddies and fields. They were left standing because Malagasy people consider them sacred and respect their presence, and today they stand alone on the plain, survivors of a lost ecosystem. The Sakalava revere them and believe spirits dwell in them.
At sunrise and sunset, when the light turns the trunks golden and their silhouettes stand out against the sky, the avenue is one of the most beautiful sights in Africa. Although it does not yet have the protection of a major national park, it is a much-loved natural monument and a symbol of the country, as well as a driver of tourism for the region. Protecting it from farming and tourism pressure is one of the challenges facing western Madagascar.
North of Morondava, at the end of a rough dirt track that can only be driven by 4x4 in the dry season, stands one of the most extraordinary landscapes on the planet: Tsingy de Bemaraha. In Malagasy, the word tsingy refers to a place where you cannot walk barefoot. It perfectly describes this maze of knife-sharp limestone spires, a mineral forest carved by rain and groundwater over millions of years.
The limestone, laid down under the sea some 200 million years ago, was dissolved by water into a unique karst landscape of vertical pinnacles, canyons, caves and underground rivers. Among the spires and in the canyons survive isolated micro-habitats that shelter endemic species of lemur, such as Decken's sifaka, along with chameleons, birds and plants that evolved shut away inside this labyrinth.
The whole area is protected by the Strict Nature Reserve and the Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park, and in 1990 UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site for its spectacular geology and biodiversity. Exploring it is an adventure: you move along in a harness and cross suspension bridges hanging over the void, in one of the most impressive nature experiences Madagascar has to offer.
Hardly anything that happened to Madagascar happened on its own: these are the histories next door.
