Geography
The land and sea area of the archipelago exceeds 2 million km2. The over 25,000 islands of the archipelago comprise many smaller archipelagoes.
The major groupings are:
- Indonesia
- Sunda Islands
- Greater Sunda Islands
- Lesser Sunda Islands
- Maluku Islands
- Sunda Islands
- Philippine Archipelago
- New Guinea and surrounding islands (when included)
The six largest islands are New Guinea, Borneo, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Java, and Luzon.
Geologically the archipelago is one of the most active volcanic regions in the world. Tectonic uplifts have produced large mountains, including the highest in Mount Kinabalu in Sabah with a height of 4,095.2 m and Puncak Jaya on New Guinea at 4,884 m (16,024 ft). Other high mountains in the archipelago include Puncak Mandala 4,760 m (15,617 ft) and Puncak Trikora 4,750 m (15,584 ft).
The climate throughout the archipelago, owing to its position on the equator, is tropical.
Read more about this topic: Malay Archipelago
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“Where the heart is, there the muses, there the gods sojourn, and not in any geography of fame. Massachusetts, Connecticut River, and Boston Bay, you think paltry places, and the ear loves names of foreign and classic topography. But here we are; and, if we tarry a little, we may come to learn that here is best. See to it, only, that thyself is here;—and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels, and the Supreme Being, shall not absent from the chamber where thou sittest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)