The Comoro Islands are an archipelago of four islands and several islets located in the western Indian Ocean about ten to twelve degrees south of the Equator and less than 200 miles off the East African coast. They lie approximately halfway between the island of Madagascar and northern Mozambique at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel. 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, Mwali, Nzwani, and Mayotte (Maore). 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, sandy beaches. Forty-four miles to the southeast of Nzwani is Mayotte (Maore), the oldest of the islands. It is almost surrounded by a barrier reef and is fairly flat with slow meandering streams and mangrove swamps.
Click on the following for more details about the four islands: Ngazidja, Mwali, Nzwani and Mayotte.