Baobab, the sacred tree of Africa and Madagascar

The baobab is revered in Africa and Madagascar as a sacred and mystical tree. Baobabs can live for more than a thousand years and are perhaps among the oldest living things on the planet.

A section of the Avenue of Baobabs, or Baobab Alley, in Madagascar.

 

Tourists come from far and wide to stroll down Baobab Alley and gape at these trees that look more like sculpture than like trees.

All baobabs look like they have been turned upside down, with their roots reaching for the sky.

The fruit develops when the baobab tree is bereft of leaves.

At a village, a fenced compound hosting a sacred baobab.

Lovers’ Baobab, some 3 km off the Kirindy-Morondava road.

Inside the trunk of a baobab tree.

A sifaka lemur. The exotic primate is endemic to Madagascar.

Villages are often situated under massive baobabs.

Baobab fruits in a market in the coastal city of Morandava.

A roadside eatery.

A Malagasy woman in her home in Bekopaka village.

Water is scarce in many villages.

Tamarind in a market in Morandava.

It is exhilarating to watch the sun disappear on the horizon while a row of baobabs stand sentinel.

The entrance to the Kirindy forest reserve, 50 km north of Morondava. The baobabs on the road to the reserve seem slender and relatively young but those inside the reserve were bigger and taller.

Another view of Baobab Alley.

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A section of the Avenue of Baobabs, or Baobab Alley, in Madagascar.
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