Africa's most active volcano above a Swahili city — Mount Karthala towers over Moroni and erupts every decade
Grande Comore (Ngazidja) is the largest and most active of the Comoros islands, dominated by Mount Karthala — a shield volcano rising to 2,361m that is one of the world's most active volcanoes, with 20 recorded eruptions since 1857 and a significant eruption as recently as 2005 that deposited ash across the island. The capital Moroni, on the island's west coast, is one of the most evocative Swahili cities outside the East African coast: a dense medina of narrow lanes, carved wooden doors, and Friday mosques where men in kofia caps discuss the global Comorian diaspora. Comoros has one of the m…
The Comoros archipelago was settled by Austronesian seafarers from Madagascar and by Bantu-speaking Africans from the mainland before becoming a major stopover on the Arab trading routes between East Africa, Arabia, and the Persian Gulf. Arab sultanates controlled Grande Comore from the 12th century, and the island chain became one of the main transmission routes for Islam into East Africa. French colonisation began in 1841; Comoros became independent in 1975 in a controversial referendum in which Mayotte voted to remain French. Post-independence Comoros has been marked by extraordinary insta…