Until 40 years ago, the seemingly primeval palm forest in a remote high valley on the Seychelles island of Praslin was still completely untouched. Today, people from all over the world come to the island to admire the rare Seychelles palm tree. Its specialty is the “Coco de Mer” seed, which weighs up to 20 kilos. The largest seed in the world. Today, the fan palms, which can grow up to 800 years old, can only be found on Praslin and the small neighboring island of Curieuse. Its stock is estimated at 400 specimens. The Serengeti in northern Tanzania impresses with its vast plains, savannahs, salt lakes and acacia forests – a unique natural spectacle in the alternating dry and rainy seasons. Lamu is an island in the Indian Ocean off the East African coast. The old town of Lamu is one of the few places where the over 1,000-year-old Swahili culture and its buildings have been preserved. The town, with a history that is almost as long, now has around 30,000 inhabitants. Melaka, a coastal city in the state of the same name in the western part of Malaysia, has a population of around 370,000. Malacca was originally founded by the Chinese as a collection and transshipment point for spices from the Moluccas. At the rock fortress of Sigiriya in Sri Lanka, you can marvel at the ruins of a palace, cisterns and pools as well as the remains of erotic frescoes, rock caves and water gardens. It has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The twelfth part of the world tour takes you around the equator.
3sat, Sunday 12.12.2010 from 17:30 to 19:00.