Photo Essay— The Island Of Borneo, Kalimantan Bashny.Net

Borneo (Malay style. Borneo), or Kalimantan (indon. Kalimantan) — bronze medal winner among the three largest Islands in the world, located in the heart of the Malay archipelago in Southeast Asia. Total area 743 330 km2. This is the only island in the world whose territory belongs to three countries: Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. Most of the Indonesian — accommodates four provinces (Central Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, West Kalimantan and South Kalimantan). The Malaysian part, covering about 26% of the total area, is divided into Sarawak and Sabah. The last is the most popular among tourists.



The island's shores are washed by the waters of the South China sea, seas, Sulawesi, Java, and Sulu Straits Makarski and Carimate. To the South of Borneo lies the island of Java, to the West Peninsula of Sulawesi and the island of Sumatra, to the North-West — Philippine Islands. Mount Kinabalu (4095 m), located in Sabah in Malaysia, is the highest point of the island and the whole of Southeast Asia.



The history of Borneo began more than 40 thousand years ago, when a group of people from China arrived via the isthmus of land on the island. Confirmation of these data is the researchers discovered the site of ancient man in the cave Nia. During the archaeological excavations were made of stone tools and the remains of ancient people. Cave paintings have been preserved in a cave until today.





Cave Mulu:





On geographical maps of the island of Borneo was done in 1521, when to its shores landed the ships of the expedition led by Magellan. The first mention of it was present in the works of Marco Polo, Dating from the XIII century, but the date of the official opening still a year visit the island by Magellan. Although Borneo does not exist on the maps, it was fairly well known among the merchants of China, India, Japan and Arab countries, who were with him trade.

Tip of Borneo:







Later on this island inspired writers, Joseph Conrad and Somerset Maugham, the famous British scientist Alfred Russel Wallace studied the mechanisms of natural selection. The landscape of Borneo, mostly mountainous, most of the territory is covered by jungle. Tropical forests of the island, whose age greatly exceeds the Amazon, are the status of some of the world's oldest (130 million years).





The flora and fauna of Borneo is incredibly diverse: it was about 15 thousands of flowering plants, 3,000 species of trees, 221 species of terrestrial mammals and 420 species of birds. The island holds a large number of endemic species of plants and animals. Here dwells the largest Primate in the world is the orangutan, grow the biggest flowers of rafflesia, and in the jungle you can meet 10 species of carnivorous plants eating insects, which are called nepenthes.

Rehabilitation center for orangutans:





Rafflesia:





Carnivorous plant — nepenthes:





In the mountains there are rare species of ferns, orchids and trees.







Exotic fruit trap:



Exotic to the indigenous inhabitants of the forest include the Permian period plant – a tree fern. Another unique representative of the flora of Borneo is the so-called walking tree. Your life journey it starts as an ordinary tree, but reached a certain growth, its roots begin to grow from the middle of the trunk about a meter from the ground, while the base of the stem with roots zasasyvaet. Getting rid of the burden, walking tree gains the ability to move in search of moisture and more fertile places.

Nosey on the roots of a walking tree:





Forest Islands are an important refuge for many endemic species of fauna, among them the Asian elephant, Sumatran rhinoceros, clouded leopard bernaski and klimentovskaya the civet cat.

Clouded leopard:





Striped palm civet cat:





In Borneo, home to several unusual animals – for example, binturong, or cat-bear, your appearance combining features of these two animals. Another strange life-form is a miniature bear eating bananas. In the avifauna of the island also has its own unique bird, which very cleverly imitates the sounds of human speech.

Binturong:





Malay homran (Hornbill):





Silver lutung:





Perhaps an untouched wilderness – the main thing that attracts tourists to Borneo, because there is a great opportunity to feel like pioneers. Also, it is very popular among diving and relaxing beach holidays.

View from the North of the island of Borneo:





Everyone who came to Borneo committed to a stroll by cable car in the national Park Gunung Mulu, which is considered the longest ropeway in the world based on trees (length is 480 metres). The road stretches from tree to tree in a circle 20 metres above the ground, including the 20 trees around which are built the platforms to admire the surrounding scenery.





Park Gunung Mulu is worth to visit not only because of the monorail — you can also see the unusual peaked rocks, resembling a stone forest in Madagascar:





In addition to the status of a Treasury of natural resources, the island is widely known as the field of diamonds and oil.To reach the island of Borneo is possible by air transport with stopovers in Moscow, Dubai and the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. In the capitals of the two Malaysian States — Kuching (Sarawak) and Kota Kinabalu (Sabah) — there are airports receiving regular flights from Kuala Lumpur.

Source: udivitelno.com