The Rock Islands of

Palau Palau,, officially the Republic of Palau and historically ''Belau'', ''Palaos'' or ''Pelew'', is an island country and microstate in the western Pacific. The nation has approximately 340 islands and connects the western chain of the Caro ...

, also called ''Chelbacheb'', are a collection of several hundred small

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

uprises in the Southern Lagoon of

between

Koror Koror is the state comprising the main commercial centre of the Republic of Palau. It consists of several islands, the most prominent being Koror Island (also ''Oreor Island''). It is Palau’s most populous state. History In the oral tradition ...

and

Peleliu Peleliu (or Beliliou) is an island in the island nation of Palau. Peleliu, along with two small islands to its northeast, forms one of the sixteen states of Palau. The island is notable as the location of the Battle of Peleliu in World War II. H ...

, now an incorporated part of Koror State. There are between 250 and 300 islands in the group according to different sources, with an aggregate area of and a maximum height of . The islands were declared a

UNESCO World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

in 2012.

History

Geography

The Rock Islands are sparsely populated and famous for their beaches, blue lagoons, and the peculiar umbrella-like shapes of many of the islands themselves. Many of the islands display a mushroom-like shape with a narrower base at the

intertidal The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of Marine habitat, habitats with var ...

notch. The indentation comes from

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

and from the dense community of

sponges Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through ...

bivalves Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts. As a group, bival ...

chitons Chitons () are marine molluscs of varying size in the class Polyplacophora (), formerly known as Amphineura. About 940 extant and 430 fossil species are recognized. They are also sometimes known as gumboots or sea cradles or coat-of-mail shel ...

snails A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastrop ...

, urchins, and others that graze mostly on

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

. Notable islands in the group are: *

Eil Malk Eil Malk or Mecherchar is the main island of the Mecherchar Islands, an island group of Palau in the Pacific Ocean. In a more narrow sense, just the southeastern peninsula of Mecherchar is called Eil Malk. Geography Eil Malk is located 23 kil ...

(Mecherchar) *

Ngeruktabel Ngeruktabel is an island of the Koror state of Palau in the South Pacific. Geography and history Ngeruktabel is the second largest island of Palau and the largest one of the Rock Islands. Like other Rock Islands, Ngeruktabel is uninhabited tod ...

Ulong Ulong may refer to: * Ulong Island, in the Republic of Palau in the Pacific Ocean, sometimes called ''Aulong'' and originally written ''Oroolong'' in English * Ulong channel, a gap in the reef to the west of Ulong Island, popular with divers. * Ulo ...

* Bablomekang (Abappaomogan) *Bukrrairong (Kamori) *Oilouch *

Ongael Ongael Island is an island in Koror State, Palau Palau,, officially the Republic of Palau and historically ''Belau'', ''Palaos'' or ''Pelew'', is an island country and microstate in the western Pacific. The nation has approximately 340 ...

Malakal Malakal is a city in South Sudan. It is the capital of Upper Nile State, South Sudan, along the White Nile River. It also serves as the headquarter of Malakal county and it used to be the headquarter of Upper Nile Region from 1970s to late 1990s. ...

*Ngebedangel (Ngobasangel) *

Ngerekebesang Ngerekebesang Island (alternative names: Ngerekebesang Hamlet, Arakabesan) is an island in the state of Koror, Palau, where the office of the President of the Republic of Palau was located before the capital was moved to the state of Melekeok. It ...

Ngerukewid Ngerukewid or Ngerukeuid (also known as Orukuizu) is a set of islands located inside the Palau's lagoon. The set contains 37 small raised coral islands A coral island is a type of island formed from coral detritus and associated organic materia ...

(Orukuizu) *Ngeanges *Ngeteklou (Gologugeul) *Tlutkaraguis (Adorius)

Environment

Important Bird Area

A 4,912 ha site encompassing the Rock Islands has been designated an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

because it supports populations of most of Palau’s endemic birds, including

Micronesian megapode The Micronesian megapode or Micronesian scrubfowl (''Megapodius laperouse'') is an endangered megapode which inhabits islands of the Western Pacific Ocean. Description The Micronesian megapode is a stocky medium-sized bird that is mostly dark b ...

Palau ground dove The Palau ground dove (''Pampusana canifrons'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is endemic to Palau, living in forests. The IUCN has assessed it as an endangered species. Taxonomy Hartlaub and Finsch described this species as ' ...

Micronesian imperial pigeon The Micronesian imperial pigeon (''Ducula oceanica''), also known as the Micronesian pigeon, and Belochel is a species of bird in the family Columbidae (doves). It is found in Palau, the Caroline Islands, the Marshall Islands and Nauru. Its habit ...

Palau fruit dove The Palau fruit dove (''Ptilinopus pelewensis'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is endemic to Palau and it is also Palau's national bird. Description The Palau fruit dove is long and weighs around . The species has a grey hea ...

swiftlet Swiftlets are birds contained within the four genera ''Aerodramus'', ''Hydrochous'', ''Schoutedenapus'' and ''Collocalia''. They form the Collocaliini tribe within the swift family Apodidae. The group contains around thirty species mostly confine ...

s and

kingfisher Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

Micronesian myzomela The Micronesian myzomela (''Myzomela rubratra'') is a species of bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. The species forms a superspecies with a number of related and similar looking island and mainland myzomelas across the Pacific and Austra ...

morningbird The morningbird (''Pachycephala tenebrosa'') is a songbird species in the family Pachycephalidae. Taxonomy and systematics The morningbird was previously placed in the genus ''Colluricincla'' until 2013, when it was transferred to ''Pachycephala ...

Palau fantail The Palau fantail (''Rhipidura lepida'') is a species of bird in the fantail family Rhipiduridae. It is endemic to Palau. Taxonomy and systematics The species is closely related to and forms a superspecies with the long-tailed fantail of the Ta ...

s, flycatchers and

bush warbler Bush-warblers (or bush warblers) are small insectivorous songbirds of the genera ''Cettia'', ''Horornis'', and ''Bradypterus''. They were formerly placed in the "wastebin" Old World warbler family. None of the genera as traditionally delimited a ...

giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...

dusky Dusky is an English electronic music duo from London consisting of Alfie Granger-Howell and Nick Harriman.

and

citrine white-eye The citrine white-eye (''Zosterops semperi''), or Caroline Islands white-eye, is a species of bird in the family Zosteropidae. It is found in Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia The Federated States of Micronesia (; abbreviated FS ...

s, and

Micronesian starling The Micronesian starling (''Aplonis opaca'') is a species of starling in the family Sturnidae. It is found in Micronesia, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Palau. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest and subtropical or tro ...

Tourism

The islands and surrounding reefs include Palau's most popular tourist sites, such as the

Blue Corner Blue Corner is a section of Palau's barrier reef in the south-east of Koror, close to Ngerukewid and German Channel. Its triangular shape, with step walls on the Pacific Ocean sides, resembles a submerged peninsula. In the north part of the Blue Co ...

, Blue Holes,

German Channel German Channel is an artificial channel dug into the Palau's barrier reef in the south-west that connects the lagoon to the Pacific Ocean. The channel was made by the Germans during the time when Palau was a German colony. Presently, it is a popu ...

, Ngermeaus Island, and the famed

Jellyfish Lake Jellyfish Lake ( pau, Ongeim'l Tketau, lit=Fifth Lake) is a marine lake located on Eil Malk island in Palau. Eil Malk is part of the Rock Islands, a group of small, rocky, mostly uninhabited islands in Palau's Southern Lagoon, between Koror an ...

, one of many

marine lake A marine lake is a lake situated very close to the sea, which has a connection to this sea, via tunnels or cracks in the soil. Marine lakes are fed with seawater but are usually also fed with rainwater, meaning that the salt content of the water is ...

s in the Rock Islands that provides home and safety for several kinds of stingless

jellyfish Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella- ...

found only in Palau. It is the most popular

diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), a ...

destination in Palau, offering some of the most diverse dive sites on the planet, from wall diving and high current drift dives, to

manta rays Manta rays are large rays belonging to the genus ''Mobula'' (formerly its own genus ''Manta''). The larger species, '' M. birostris'', reaches in width, while the smaller, '' M. alfredi'', reaches . Both have triangular pectoral fins, horn-s ...

and sharkfeeds, to shallow lagoons, decorated caves, and overhangs. Tourist attractions also include Dolphin Bay, where a staff of veterinarians and trainers educate guests about dolphins.

Demographics

The only inhabited place on the islands is called Dolphin Bay (on Ngeruktabel, 5 km from Koror). It is the location of Palau's national aquatics park, and hosts headquarters of Palau's Park rangers.

Gallery

File:Rock-Islands-Palau-1-2016-aerial-view-Luka-Peternel.jpg, Aerial view of Rock Islands. File:Rock-Islands-Palau-1-2016-sea-view-Luka-Peternel.jpg, View of Rock Islands from the lagoon. File:Divers descending next to the mast of the Japanese tanker Iro, Palau Islands, Micronesia.jpg, Divers descending next to the mast of the Japanese tanker Iro. File:Anenomefish on the wreck of the Japanese tanker Iro, Palau Islands, Micronesia.jpg, An

Anemonefish Clownfish or anemonefish are fishes from the subfamily Amphiprioninae in the family Pomacentridae. Thirty species of clownfish are recognized: one in the genus '' Premnas'', while the remaining are in the genus '' Amphiprion''. In the wild, t ...

on the wreck of the Japanese tanker Iro. Image:1907_aquaimages.jpg, One of the many Rock Islands.

Notes

External links

Island DirectoryMap of Mecherchar (Eil Malk)
{{Authority control Uninhabited islands of Palau Koror World Heritage Sites in Palau Island restoration Important Bird Areas of Palau Important Bird Areas of the Caroline Islands