The Comoro Islands are an archipelago of four islands and several islets located in the western Indian
Ocean at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel. They lie between 10° and 12°S latitude and
between 44° and 46°E longitude. Just south of the Equator and less than 200 miles from the East
African coast, they are halfway between the island of Madagascar and the country of Mozambique. The archipelago is the
result of volcanic action along a fissure in the seabed running west-northwest to east-southeast. The total area of the four islands is 785 square miles
(2,034 square kilometers).
The four major islands are Ngazidja (Grande Comore), Mwali (Moheli), Nzwani (Anjouan), and Maore (Mayotte). Ngazidja is the largest and the youngest island in the archipelago. It is the most westerly of the islands, lying 188 miles from Mozambique. Ngazidja has an active volcano that rises to a height of 7,746 feet (2,361 meters) above sea level. Mwali, 28 miles south-southeast of Ngazidja, is the smallest of the islands with a central mountain range that rises 2,556 feet (790 meters) above sea level. Nzwani lies about twenty-five miles easterly of Mwali, has a central peak that rises 5,072 feet (1,575 meters) above sea level. It also has several swift running streams that cascade down to long, black, sandy beaches. Forty-four miles to the southeast of Nzwani is Maore, the first of the islands to emerge from the western Indian Ocean. It is almost surrounded by a barrier reef and is fairly flat with slow meandering streams and mangrove swamps.
Click on any of the following for more details: Ngazidja, Mwali, Nzwani and Mayotte.