Comoros.

Located in a strategic position at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel, the archipelago of the Comoro Islands arose from the seabed of the western Indian Ocean as the result of volcanic activity. The islands: Ngazidja (Grande Comore), Mwali (Moheli), Nzwani (Anjouan), and Maore (Mayotte) with their French names in parentheses, have distinct topograhical characteristics due to their different ages. Maore, the oldest of the islands, is highly eroded with slow, meandering streams. Ngazidja, the youngest of the islands is dominated by a massive, active volcano. Volcanic experts are concerned that a very violent eruption may occur in the near future. The other two islands are mountainous but have no active volcanic activity. The Comoro Islands once played a major role in the maritime economy of the western Indian Ocean. For centuries, they were a major stopover on the mercantile routes from Africa to the Orient.

Ancient documents speak of widespread maritime trade in the Indian Ocean involving large, seaworthy sailing vessels. The tales of Sinbad the Sailor provide an entertaining and fanciful view of sailing in the Indian Ocean but they are based on a factual, centuries old maritime trade. Sailors traveled between ports in the Comoros, the East African Coast, Arabia, and India in the search for a wide variety of goods including gems, rare animals, exotic woods, spices, and slaves. The town of Domoni on the eastern shore of the island of Nzwani (Anjouan), for one, is mentioned as a major trading center in the fifteenth century by the famous navigator, Ibn Madjid. Ibn Madjid is best known to the western world as the navigator who possibly guided the Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama, from East Africa to India. But he was also widely known in the countries of the Indian Ocean littoral and he traveled extensively throughout the area during the 1400s. He wrote of African, Indian, and Persian sailing vessels visiting Domoni. Archaeological evidence, furthermore, indicates the town was founded before the 12th century and that trade existed between Domoni and places as far away as Japan by the 18th century.

Traditional sailing vessels of the Indian Ocean, much like the 60 foot merchantman pictured at right, carried tons of cargo, yet were notably fast sailing ships, and were remarkable in that they had no metal in their construction. Their hulls were made from wooden planks sewn together with rope made from coconut fiber. They were flexible, shallow draft craft able to stand the pounding of surf without breaking apart. Consequently, they required no deep water ports. Instead, they were beached or anchored just offshore.

During the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries, large numbers of European and American ships visited the islands. They were well-known to whalers, seamerchants, and pirates, including the infamous Captain Kidd. The island of Nzwani, in particular, was a favorite stopover for reprovisioning food and water. But with the introduction of steamships and the opening of the Suez Canal, the Comoros ceased to be a stop on the major trade routes of the Indian Ocean. In the 20th century, except for an occasional historical incident, they virtually disappeared from the world's awareness. For much of the western world, they became "Forgotten Islands."