A strait is a relatively narrow section of the ocean or sea that divides two pieces of land (islands or even continents) and connects adjacent water spaces. The Mozambique Channel is the longest in the world. These kind of natural crossings that connect the seas and oceans play an important role in trade relations between countries.
Mozambique Channel on the world map
In the western waters of the Indian Ocean is the largest water crossing that separates Africa and the island of Madagascar. The Mozambique Channel is 1,760 km long, 422 km to 925 km wide, and its depth varies from 117 m to 3,292 m. The greatest depth is recorded in the northern and southern parts, in the middle it is about 2.4 km.
If you look at the Mozambique Channel on the map, you can see the Comoros in the north. Along their coasts are smaller islands and reefs. One of the characteristic features is a fairly constant current with a north-westerly direction at a speed of about 1.5 knots. The height of the tides sometimes reaches 5 m.
Who was the first to discover the straitbetween Africa and Madagascar?
Long before the Europeans, the longest strait was actively used by the Arabs who traded with the inhabitants of Madagascar, but the question of the discoverer of European origin was controversial. Some experts name Vasco da Gama as the first person to cross it. There is another point of view, according to which Marco Polo should be considered the discoverer, who told the world about the find two centuries before Vasco da Gama.
Origin of the name
Interesting facts associated with the name "Mozambican". The ancient Arabs called it al-Kumr, which means that the name did not come from them. When Vasco da Gama made his travels, the country of Mozambique did not yet exist, and in its place was the country of Monomotapa.
Some scientists associate the origin of the name of both the state and the strait itself with a funny case from history, when the Portuguese distorted the name of the head of the port town, combining it with the name of the country - Musa-ben-Mbika. The unusual combination took root, and the Mozambique Strait that appeared on the map is still called that.
Scenic Mozambique coastline
The coast is distinguished by incredible beauty. Golden sandy beaches are surrounded by gently sloping hills that offer a gorgeous view of the longest strait in the world. The fauna and flora are also very diverse, the nature of these places is unique, very rare species of fish live here. The Mozambique Channel is strewn with underwatervolcanoes, off the coast of Mozambique and Madagascar you can find a large number of islands of volcanic origin, under water turning into picturesque coral reefs.
For example, in its waters in 1938 a unique species was discovered - a bony coelacanth fish (Latimeria chalumnae), which lived on the planet 50-70 million years ago and is now considered extinct. This living fossil is found mainly in the direction of the coast of South Africa. According to rough estimates, it is much older than the dinosaurs themselves, and there is also a manta ray here. These and other interesting inhabitants of a place called the Mozambique Channel are of great interest to diving enthusiasts.
Successful attempt to cross the Mozambia Strait
Two athletes and excellent swimmers from South Africa, Thane Williams and Jonno Proudfoot, made a whopping 450 km swim from Mozambique to Madagascar in the spring of 2014. This extravagant event had a noble goal: to raise money for a special fund to help children. Thane and Jonno returned to their homeland like true heroes.
It was not an easy task to cross the Mozambique Channel without anyone's help, but the mission was successfully completed. The water barrier, which is part of the Indian Ocean and sandwiched between Madagascar and Africa in the southeast, was conquered. A channel created by nature itself, which is approximately460 km in the narrowest place, located between the city of Angoch in Mozambique and Tambohorano in Madagascar, two seemingly ordinary people with ambitious goals and a noble mission were able to swim across.
Sea ecology of the Strait
The depths of the Mozambique Channel are fraught with a large number of tuna and other marine fish species, as well as lobsters, deep-sea shrimp, crayfish and crabs. Mammals include the Pacific bottlenose dolphin, striped dolphin, humpback whale and short-finned pilot whale. The largest concentration of cetaceans is observed in the vicinity of Mayotte.
Catching fish is mainly done by local fishermen, and there has been a recent trend towards a decrease in fish stocks. There are other important environmental problems, including: the impact on the marine ecology of water polluted as a result of the use of phosphate and nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture, the ingress of various pesticides and herbicides into water flows.
History of the Mozambique Channel
Only a small part of the written sources that tell about the time of the Portuguese colonial era of the early 16th century in the coastal zones of the Mozambique Channel has survived. It is known that one side of the natural channel was occupied by local African peoples for a long time, it is also a fact that Muslim traders and seafarers arrived here from the north during the period from 800 to 1000 AD.
The coastline of Mozambique was developed earlier than that of Madagascar, and the densityThe population of the coast of Africa was many times greater than the number of inhabitants of the island.
