The island of Madagascar lies 400 km to the east African coast. It is separated by the Mozambique Channel at the level of Tanzania and Mozambique, and is bisected by the Tropic of Capricorn at Toliara.
Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world after Greenland, New Guinea, Borneo and Australia with an area of 592,000 sq. km (which is equivalent to France, Belgium and Luxembourg combined), including 5 000 km of coastline.
