Do you know such a place? Covered by a large number of lilac trees, coconut trees and various tropical flowers and plants, it is called the most fragrant place in the world-it is the Zanzibar Islands protruding in the western Indian Ocean.
Zanzibar is an inalienable part of the United Republic of Tanzania, including two large coral islands-Zanzibar Island, Pemba Island and more than 20 neighboring islands. Zanzibar Island is 85 kilometers long from north to south and 40 kilometers wide from east to west, with an area of 1658 square kilometers. Pemba Island is located 40 kilometers north of Zanzibar Island, covering an area of 984 square kilometers. Tongba Island is located two kilometers northwest of Zanzibar Island, with an area of 15 square kilometers. Lasamhan Island, D kilometers southeast of Zanzibar Island, is 270 meters long and 155 meters wide, only 3 meters above the tidal level. Turtle Island, about 5 kilometers northwest of Zanzibar Deepwater Wharf, covers an area of less than 0.2 square kilometers.
Zanzibar's climate is hot and humid, but the regulation of the ocean makes it very warm and pleasant. The temperature here is not high, and the change range is not great. The average temperature in July is 23℃, and the average temperature in L is 28℃. The annual precipitation in Zanzibar Island is 400-2000mm, and that in Pemba Island is as high as 2000mm.. From April to May every year,11-65438+February, the rain is too concentrated and floods come. Sometimes, hurricanes also hit Zanzibar Island, leaving a large number of people homeless and destroying large areas of lilac and coconut trees.
With a large population and a small population, Zanzibar faces the same problems as China. Smart islanders must have come up with a good idea. They practice "three-dimensional planting", that is, mixing tall and short crops with perennial and short crops. Because the tallest coconut tree, the second tallest clove tree, the lower papaya and banana are mixed with the shorter cassava, taro, beans and vegetables, the vertical nutrient area of the growth space is fully utilized, and the absorption of soil moisture and nutrients with different intensities is improved. Litters of perennial economic forests improve soil fertility and fertilize annual crops, thus greatly increasing unit land area and economic benefits.
Zanzibar is rich in cloves, but the hometown of cloves is not here, but Maluku Islands, which spread to reunion island and Mauritius from18th century, and was transferred to Zanzibar at the end of18th century. Lilac is an evergreen tree of Myrtaceae, generally about 6- 10 meters high. They have beautiful pyramid-shaped corollas, dark green oval leaves and small green, red and white flowers. Clove trees can bloom 5-7 years after planting. After picking the buds of the lilac tree and drying them, they become lilacs.
Cloves and other parts of clove trees are excellent spices and raw materials for refining sesame oil. Refined clove oil is a kind of yellow oil with strong clove fragrance, which can be used to make various high-grade spices, perfumes and cigarette ingredients. Clove is also a precious medicinal material, which has the function of invigorating stomach and expelling wind, and can be used to treat hiccups, abdominal distension, pain, toothache, rheumatic neuralgia and so on.
China Song Dynasty Shen Kuo said in "Talk about Meng Xi": "My body in the three provinces: Langguan Day contains the fragrance of chicken tongue, and I want to answer things, and my breath is fragrant." The smell of chicken tongue is lilac. /kloc-cloves were introduced to Europe in the 0/3rd century, and the Portuguese monopolized the clove trade in the 0/6th century. 1832, Sultan Said Said, the ruler of Zanzibar, colluded with European colonists to sell and drive African slaves to cut down the dense virgin forests of Pemba Island and Zanzibar Island, and planted millions of lilacs and coconut trees. At that time, it was stipulated that each coconut tree must plant three lilac trees, otherwise it would be severely punished. This law may be somewhat mandatory, but it objectively expands the planting area of lilac trees. The local people proudly call the lilac tree a "cash cow". Because clove exports account for 80% of Zanzibar's foreign exchange earnings. Cloves in Zanzibar, with good color, excellent texture, uniform particles and mellow fragrance, have won international reputation for Sandao.
Kyle. Poirot once described Zanzibar as rich and beautiful. In China's classics, it is called "Kunlun Stratum State" or "Stratum State". In the Song Dynasty, Zhou went to Africa to "People Beyond the Ridge" (A.D. 1 178) and introduced the "Kunlun Stratum Country" in the Southwest China Sea. There are big ivory, rhinoceros, Dapeng, camel crane (ostrich) and wild camel. Zhao Ying wrote Zhufanzhi on 1225, saying: "When the country is uprooted and the mountains are connected, everyone will eat it and learn from it." It is recorded in the book that people "wear green cloth and red shoes." The food is "rice noodles, sesame cakes and mutton". Production has ivory, raw gold, dragon birthday, Dalbergia. These products are exported and traded with China, Indian and Arab countries. According to Tang Shu and New Tang Shu, during the Yuan and Yuan Dynasties, an emissary from He Ling came to Chang 'an, China with monks. In the Song Dynasty, especially in the Southern Song Dynasty, the communication between Guo Chong and the coastal countries in East Africa further developed. In the fourth year of Xining (ltol) and the sixth year of Yuanfeng (1083), Tietan Kingdom (Zanzibar) sent envoys to China twice. The friendship between Zanzibar and China seems to go back to ancient times.
In the Persian Gulf, Zanzibar means "black land". Yes, how many black people shed blood and tears all over Zanzibar Island? The Portuguese occupied Zanzibar from 1503 to 1508. Arabs overthrew the rule of Portuguese colonists in 1698 and occupied Zanzibar in 17 10. /kloc-In the middle of the 9th century, British colonists invaded Zanzibar, and Germany seized Zanzibar from the British in 1884. 1890165438+1October 4th, Britain and Germany divided their spheres of influence, and Zanzibar was designated as a British protectorate according to the Anglo-German Treaty. British colonists declared Zanzibar as "the connection point of Britain's important strategic plan in East Africa".
Colonists and slave traders from all over the world plundered groups of blacks on the African continent. Kidnapped to Zanzibar to grow lilacs and coconuts. There are still slave caves and pits on the island, and the descendants of slaves will never forget the blood and tears shed by their ancestors. Located in Maruhubi Slave Cave, about two kilometers north of Zanzibar, there is a three-person high gray stone wall, on which iron rings and chains that lock slaves' hands and feet are well preserved. Manga Poigny village also has two slave pits, two meters deep and more than one meter wide.
Zanzibar Island has the oldest tortoise, 170 years old. Although the saying goes, "The Millennium King is a turtle for 80,000 years", there is actually no achievement for a thousand years, and there is no turtle for ten thousand years. The life span of American "Carolina turtle" is 123, and that of Mauritian turtle is 152. This 170-year-old Zanzibar turtle lives on Turtle Island. Turtles feed on weeds and roots. Wild fruit lives on the rain on the island. Even in the dry season, no matter how thirsty, turtles never go to the seaside to drink salt water. They are afraid of the heat and always hide in the bushes under the green trees. The tortoise is a Hercules. With four or five strong people standing on its back, Nepal can still crawl forward easily. There is also a kind of fish called "long bone" in the waters around Kameyama, which looks like crucian carp and tastes very delicious. Turtle Island has a shoal of fine sand, which is flat and wide. There are many exotic "purple bread", "eggs" and shellfish called "Du Dong" by local people, which are colorful and dazzling. Tourists who come to see lilacs on the island regard swimming at the seaside of Turtle Island as the best enjoyment.