(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/53552000/gif/_53552338_madagasgar.gif)
Madagascar is the world's fourth biggest island after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo. Because of its isolation most of its mammals, half its birds, and most of its plants exist nowhere else on earth.
• Full name: Republic of Madagascar
• Population: 20.1 million (via UN, 2010)
• Capital: Antananarivo
• Area: 587,041 sq km (226,658 sq miles)
• Major languages: Malagasy (official), French
• Major religions: Indigenous beliefs, Christianity
• Life expectancy: 61 years (men), 64 years (women) (UN)
• Monetary unit: Ariary
• Main exports: Vanilla, coffee, seafood, cloves, petroleum products, chromium, fabrics
• GNI per capita: US $420 (World Bank, 2009)
• Internet domain: .mg
• International dialling code: +261
The island is heavily exposed to tropical cyclones which bring torrential rains and destructive floods, such as the ones in 2000 and 2004, which left thousands homeless.
The Malagasy are thought to be descendants of Africans and Indonesians who settled on the island more than 2,000 years ago. Malagasy pay a lot of attention to their dead and spend much effort on ancestral tombs, which are opened from time to time so the remains can be carried in procession, before being rewrapped in fresh shrouds.
BBC