Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands has many islands in the Pacific Ocean.

The big islands have tall mountains. Thick forest covers the hills.

Solomon Islands is a country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, in the region called Melanesia. Its islands form two long chains running northwest to southeast, with smaller island groups farther east.

English is the official language, but most people use Pijin, a language based on English, to talk across more than 60 local languages. The capital is Honiara, on the island of Guadalcanal. The 2019 census counted 720,956 people. The photo shows Honiara from the air in 2013, spread along the coast.

The country comprises most of the Solomons chain, except Buka and Bougainville at the northwestern end, which form an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea. Its main islands lie in two parallel chains: the southern includes Vella Lavella, the New Georgia Islands, Savo and Guadalcanal; the northern, Choiseul, Santa Isabel and Malaita; they converge on Makira (San Cristobal). The Santa Cruz Islands lie some 555 km east of Guadalcanal.

The 2019 census counted 720,956 people (369,396 male, 351,560 female) on census night, November 24, 2019. A constitutional monarchy in the Commonwealth, it has a prime minister elected by and from Parliament. The photo shows Honiara from the air (2013).

Honiara is the capital and biggest city.

Most people live in small villages. They grow gardens, raise pigs and go fishing.

Honiara, on the north coast of Guadalcanal, is the capital and largest city. It became the capital after World War II, because it had an airfield, flat land and buildings left by the army. The old capital was Tulagi.

Most Solomon Islanders live in small villages in the countryside, growing their own food in gardens, raising pigs and fishing. Ships and the national airline, Solomon Airlines, link the islands.

Honiara, on Guadalcanal's north coast, is the capital and largest city; it replaced Tulagi after World War II because of a nearby airfield, flat land and military buildings. Honiara, Tulagi and Gizo handle overseas cargo, and Honiara International Airport is the main gateway, with the government-owned Solomon Airlines flying domestic and regional routes.

Most people live in small rural villages and practice subsistence gardening, pig raising and fishing alongside the cash economy. Only the plains on northern Guadalcanal have been developed for large-scale farming. Education is not compulsory; schools are run by governments and churches, and the University of the South Pacific has a campus in Honiara. The Solomon Islands National Museum opened there in 1969.

Some islands have volcanoes.

It rains a lot, and thick forests grow on the hills.

The big islands are rugged and mountainous. Mount Popomanaseu on Guadalcanal is the highest peak, about 2,330 meters. The islands are part of a long chain of volcanoes: Savo has hot springs, and Tinakula and an underwater volcano called Kavachi erupt every few years.

It is hot and humid, with 3,000 to 3,500 millimeters of rain a year. Rennell Island, in the south, is a coral atoll pushed up above the sea; its old lagoon is now Lake Tegano, the largest lake in the Pacific islands.

Geologically the islands belong to the volcanic arc from New Ireland (Papua New Guinea) to Vanuatu. Savo has hot springs and last erupted in the 1840s; Tinakula (Santa Cruz) and the submarine volcano Kavachi near New Georgia erupt every few years, and Simbo has a solfatara. Earthquakes and cyclones occur regularly. Mount Popomanaseu reaches 2,330 m (Britannica; Wikidata gives 2,335 m).

UNESCO's East Rennell (1998) covers the southern third of Rennell, 86 km long, which UNESCO calls the largest raised coral atoll in the world; Lake Tegano, its former lagoon, is brackish, about 15,500 ha, and dotted with limestone islands and endemic species. UNESCO lists East Rennell as World Heritage in Danger. The photo shows the open Coral Sea, which lies south of the islands.

Crocodiles live in Solomon Islands.

Many kinds of pigeons, bats, frogs and lizards live there too.

As on most island groups, there are not many kinds of land animals. They include many pigeons, bats, rats, snails, lizards, frogs and turtles, and the estuarine crocodile, also called the saltwater crocodile.

Lake Tegano on Rennell has living things found nowhere else. The crocodile in the photo, named Maximo, was photographed at an alligator farm in Florida, in the United States.

Britannica describes limited fauna typical of island groups: an array of pigeons, rats, bats, snails, lizards, frogs, turtles and the estuarine crocodile (Crocodylus porosus). On Rennell, UNESCO notes dense forest with a canopy averaging 20 m and endemic species in brackish Lake Tegano, a natural laboratory shaped by frequent cyclones.

Fish and timber, the main natural resources, have been exploited so heavily that they have been depleted. The crocodile photo shows 'Maximo', a captive animal at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm in Florida, USA.

People in Solomon Islands speak more than 60 languages!

Bands play music on bamboo pipes and drums.

Most Solomon Islanders are Melanesian, and small Polynesian communities live on outlying atolls such as Ontong Java, Rennell, Bellona and Tikopia. Almost everyone is Christian.

Much traditional culture lives on. Panpipes and 'bamboo bands', made of drums cut from bamboo, are popular. Craftspeople make wood carvings, shell inlay, mats, baskets and shell jewelry. Shell money from Malaita and red-feather money from Santa Cruz are still made for traditional exchanges, though everyday shopping uses the Solomon Islands dollar.

The vast majority of people are Melanesian; Polynesians live mainly on outlying atolls (Ontong Java, Bellona, Rennell, the Reef Islands, Sikaiana, Tikopia, Anuta), and Gilbertese from Kiribati were resettled on Ghizo and Vaghena between 1955 and 1971. Most are Protestant, mainly Church of Melanesia (Anglican), with Roman Catholic and other minorities. Pijin, an English-based Melanesian pidgin, is the most widely used of more than 60 languages and dialects.

Panpipes and bamboo bands are popular, and an indigenous literary movement in English grew in the late 20th century. Shell money (Malaita) and red-feather money (Santa Cruz) are made for customary transactions. Exports include fish, timber, palm oil, copra and cacao.