What's inside this crater in Madagascar?
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Published 2023-12-05
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Right in the center of the island nation of Madagascar there’s a strange, almost perfectly circular geological structure. It covers a bigger area than the city of Paris — and at first glance, it looks completely empty. But right in the center of that structure, there’s a single, isolated village: a few dozen houses, some fields of crops, and dirt roads stretching out in every direction.
When we first saw this village on Google Earth, its extreme remoteness fascinated us. Was the village full of people? How did they wind up there? And what did life look like in such a strange geography? To find out, we teamed up with a local team in Madagascar and fell down a rabbit hole of geology and mapping along the way. It’s a story of how continental shifts and volcanic geology came together to form a place for a group of people to call home.
Check out an extended look at the interviews in this video: • Bonus interviews: What’s inside this ...
We got to talk with a lot of experts along the way to make this piece. Here are links to some of their work:
Here is some of Michel Jébrak’s research on the Richat structure: www.researchgate.net/publication/32048440_Resolvin…
Here is Ndivhuwo Cecilia Mukosi’s original paper on the Ambohiby Complex: www.researchgate.net/publication/318723814_Petroge…
We also spoke with Stian Rice, author of Famine in the Remaking, who helped us understand more about the history of agriculture in Madagascar: gjia.georgetown.edu/2022/01/24/madagascars-famine-…
Check out Stian’s book on famine and food systems: wvupressonline.com/node/831
Norman Thomas Uphoff at Cornell’s SRI International Network also shared more about agricultural systems and innovation: sri.ciifad.cornell.edu/
Correction: At 2:52, we mistakenly labeled Lucienne Wilmé as a professor of geology at the University of Florida. In fact, she is a national coordinator of the Madagascar Program at the World Resources Institute.
Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out www.vox.com/.
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All Comments (21)
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Thanks so much for watching! This video was a massive collaboration over the course of several months, and there was so much material we couldn’t fit into the final piece. For an extended look at the interviews with the people living in and around the mountain, check out this bonus video: https://youtu.be/YIOon-drZhE
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I would like to thank VOX for having contacted us to carry out the descent and filming on Ambohiby. It wasn't an easy task, especially for me as a fixer, but with good preparation and the right team, the result speaks for itself. Thanks also to Lalie Rabeharison for the collaboration. Looking forward to the next project.
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We loved to shoot this episode ❤ Immense gratitude goes to @Vox for not only amplifying the voices of the resilient people of Ambohiby but also providing them with the means to tell their extraordinary story. It's an honor to witness their greatness and courage, deserving the spotlight and attention they've received. Moreover, the opportunity granted to name Anosibe properly stands as a testament to the significance of their culture and heritage. Through this act, their narrative gains even more depth, resonating powerfully with the world and ensuring their legacy endures with its rightful name. From Madagascar with love ❤
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One of the most touching pieces I have seen this year. It is like a whole investigation behind one of those random questions you ask yourself at 2am on a work night while mindlessly roaming through the internet. This is the dream of every geography nerd that just likes to browse through Google Maps. Congratulations to Vox and the whole Malagasy team on the ground, really a beautiful story.
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I watched this video and then immediately searched the village in Google Map. It is so beautiful. Huge respects to everyone involved in bringing spotlight to this village.
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This is the type of video essays/documentary I love: "I saw something cool on google earth and wanted to learn more about it"
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It is suddenly eye-opening to see that there are places beyond our narrow vision. Kudos to the team for this great piece. Deserves awards.
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Imagine moving to the most remote place you could find to escape everyone and then you end up on the internet.
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I am sad about the possibility that more people might disturb this wonderful village now. Pls. Leave them in peace
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I hope and pray that no one causes trouble for these beautiful villagers after this documentary because it looks like not a lot of people knew about their existence. I pray that they continue living in this beautiful secret haven without any interference from the outside world.
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As a geographer I can tell you this video is absolutely incredible. What you did is something a geographer would love to do, the extensive research on aiming to a group of people and trying to understand why they ended up there in such a unique place is something very few would do. I'm glad your curiosity and vox let you do it. Kudos to the entire team and greetings to those friends in Anosibe Ambohiby.
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This was so amazing! It gives me goosebumps when they found the village! Thank you so much for doing this video!
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Well done! I wish there could be a REAL DOCUMENTARY like this, for most of the remote unknown places on earth. Really, THANK YOU for all this work. THANK YOU!
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As a Malagasy, I used to live in Tsiroanomandidy for 10 years but never heared a story about this place. So i'm so grateful that you make a video about it, thanks for all your intersest. Big thanks too for Lalie's Team who makes this experience possible. I'm so proud to live in this beautiful country, full of diversity and full of nice people♥️
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What an amazing story and incredible journalism. Hats off to Christophe and everyone involved in the production of this video. I found myself tearing up when the village elder talked about how proud he was of his produce. Hopefully, they can get some better roads to the area soon.
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I got goosebumps, thank you all for this intriguing and heartfelt journey. I'm glad that the villagers are striving and hope that this will rise awareness about the state of the roads and that actions will be taken to help them.
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I just found out about this channel as YouTube recommended me this and I am so glad about that! I find everything about this video fascinating; all of the research and hard work you put into this whole documentary and even having a team travel there?! Thank you and everyone included in this so much for your time and dedication! I just subscribed and have many more hours of amazing content to watch!
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As a malagasy, I can’t express how grateful I am for this amazing piece of work; respectful, thoroughly researched, beautifully filmed, written and edited. I rarely get to come across such high quality content about my country by accident and I can say without exaggeration that all of the effort put into this video sincerely touches me. Thank you!
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Hope the villagers don't face any negative consequences due to this video. Surprisingly, this has not been addressed in the video. And at the time of writing (9 hours after the upload), none of the top comments are expressing any concern about this. Just to be clear, there are a ton of negative consequences that could arise from this. The worst is they might get thrown out of that land because they don't own it.
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Thank you all the team and people that were involved in this project, it was amazing and intriguing to watch. Your dedication makes stories like that told and seen. 🤍
