The limestone Ankarana mountain range is part of a geological set originating in corals which emerged from water during the Jurassic era. This type of karstic formation can be found in several places along the west coast of Madagascar (Bemaraha, Nosy Hara Tsingys…). It is characterized by strange sharp peaks resulting from erosion and called Tsingys by the local people, a word which means walking on tiptoe. Like many natural phenomenons the Tsingys are linked in the local culture to the world of spirits and ancestors.
Ankarana with its caves, its canyons, its forest and its subterranean rivers is a sacred place for its inhabitants, the Antankarana Sakalava. Their name is the same as that of the mountain in which many of them have been buried long ago and which protected them from invasions. Ankarana breezes with history, legends and living traditions but it is also a natural sanctuary, a 18 255ha large reservation.
The vegetation, typical of karstic plateaus, is made up of a dry forest growing on basaltic grounds and a semi- wet forest typical of grounds where limestone and basaltic rocks are mixed. It abounds in endemic species such as Baobabs, Pachypodium, Euphorbia and other Adénia. Its fauna is also very rich, with more than ten species of lemurs, ninety two species of birds, among which the Mesire varié, one of the rarest bird in the world, as well as thirteen species of bats and many chameleons and crocodiles. |
