Mariana Archipelago. Mariana Islands. Mariana Islands on the map. Mariana Islands: photo In which ocean are the Mariana Islands located?

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Visa to Northern Mariana Islands

The Northern Mariana Islands are located in the western Pacific Ocean and are legally part of the United States. The islands have representation at all American embassies. For this reason, having an American visa in your passport is automatically a pass to the islands.

For citizens of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, a visa is not required if the purpose of the trip is tourism, and the period of stay on the islands will be no more than 30 days, taking into account the dates of arrival and departure. If these deadlines are violated, the foreign tourist will have to pay a fine for each day over 30 nei according to the established tariffs, and in the future the violator of customs rules may have difficulty obtaining a US visa. However, before going on vacation to the Northern Mariana Islands, a tourist will need to obtain an entry permit or Visitor Entry Permit in advance. A tourist will need a permit when going through border control at the airport in the Northern Mariana Islands. You can obtain the document from the Department of Immigration of the Commonwealth of the Mariana Islands. The issuance of this permit is initiated by the host party (hotel or official organization on the islands), the organizer of the tourist trip or the tourist:

If a hotel or travel agency is handling the permit, the tourist must provide them with a scanned first page of the international passport, purchased air tickets, a completed application form and a declaration of financial status.

If permission is issued...

Official name - Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands(Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands).

Located in the western part of the Pacific Ocean. Area 477 km2, population of the Mariana Islands 80 thousand people. (2003). The official language is English. The administrative center of the Mariana Islands is the island of Saipan (over 50 thousand people, 2003). Public holiday - Commonwealth Day 8 January (1978). The monetary unit of the Mariana Islands is the US dollar.

Member of the Pacific Community (formerly UTK, since 1983).

The Mariana Islands are located between 13° and 31° north latitude and 144° and 146° east longitude on 14 islands of the Mariana archipelago, stretching 685 km from north to south. It borders on the south with Guam (the 15th island in the Mariana ridge, which turns into the deepest Mariana Trench on the planet - 10,900 m).

All islands are volcanic and mountainous. The length of the coastline is 1482 km. Northern Islands (9) are younger. Active volcanoes remain on Pagan and Agrihan (unnamed peak 965 m - the highest point in Micronesia). Ma-ug and Guguan are wildlife sanctuaries, with thousands of seabirds nesting in the trees on the cliff tops. Sarigan is rich in tropical vegetation and home to a large colony of wild goats. The southern islands (5), including the largest (Saipan, 125 km2, Tinian, 105 km2 and Rota, 101 km2) are older. Coconut palms, heat-resistant cereals, sugar cane, etc. grow there on calcareous soils. Saipan has 6 different landscapes: from volcanic hills to wet lowlands and sandy beaches.

Natural resources: fish stocks within a 200-mile economic zone.

The climate of the Mariana Islands is tropical, even throughout the year, with an average temperature of +30°C, drier than in other places in Micronesia. The amount of precipitation is low - within 250 mm per year. Rainy season: July - November. There are typhoons at this time.

The population of the Mariana Islands is growing rapidly (3-4% per year), incl. due to immigration. The majority of the population is made up of Micronesian peoples (Chamorros, Carolinians, etc.), there are Europeans, Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos and Koreans. Chamorro (mostly oral) and Carolinian are common languages. Less than 15% of the population speaks English at home. Most Chamorrans speak a little Japanese to communicate with tourists. 97% of the adult population of the Mariana Islands is literate. Life expectancy for men is 73 years, for women - 79 years. Infant mortality 5.5 people. per 1000 newborns.

Most of the population of the Mariana Islands is concentrated on the island of Saipan; 5 other islands are inhabited.

The Catholic religion predominates, combined with adherence to traditional legends, beliefs and taboos.

In 1521, the Mariana Islands were discovered by F. Magellan. Their colonization in the 17th century. was accompanied by armed clashes between the Spaniards and the indigenous people - the Chamorros, most of whom were exterminated. They got their name in honor of Marianna of Austria, the widow of the Spanish king Philip IV. In 1899 Spain sold them to Germany. After World War I, under the mandate of the League of Nations, the islands came under Japanese control. In 1947, the United States received control of Mariana as one of the UN Trust Territories. Access to the islands was limited due to US military installations. Most of Tinian (from where the B-29 planes took off for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) is still reserved for use by the US Armed Forces. In 1972, negotiations began between representatives of the islands and the US government about the future status of the Marians. In 1975, they signed an Agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of the Mariana Islands, which are “in a political union” with the United States. In 1978, after approval in a referendum, the Marian Constitution came into force, on the basis of which the first elections of the legislative and executive powers were held. In 1986, the above-mentioned Agreement also came into force. In 1990, the UN Armed Forces abolished the status of a mandated territory in relation to the Commonwealth of the Mariana Islands.

The Mariana Islands are a self-governing Commonwealth "in political union" with the United States, which controls foreign relations and defense. The head of state is the President of the United States. The indigenous population has American citizenship, but does not participate in American elections. Federal funding for the Marian economy is the responsibility of the US Department of the Interior.

The country has no administrative divisions, but there are 4 municipalities (Northern Islands, Saipan, Tinian and Rota).

Executive power is exercised by the governor (Juan N. Wabauta) and the vice-governor (Diego T. Venevente), elected by direct popular vote for 4-year terms. The next elections are in 2005. The bicameral Legislative Assembly has 9 senators (elected for 4 years) and 18 members of the House of Representatives (for 2 years). The population of the islands also elects a “permanent representative” to the United States with a residence in Washington (unlike Guam, which has its own delegate to the US House of Representatives).

Political parties: by analogy with the USA - Republican (its members are the current governor and permanent representative in Washington, 4 senators and 16 deputies of the lower house) and Democratic (3 senators and a deputy), Reform Party (senator), Agreement Party (deputy).

The Mariana Islands do not have diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation.

GDP per capita is 12.5 thousand US dollars. The main sectors of the economy are the rapidly growing clothing industry and tourism. About 50% of the workforce is employed in the tourism industry (25% of GDP), another 35% (mostly Chinese) in the clothing industry. The number of foreign workers is more than 4 times higher than the number of local workers, among whom unemployment is high - 30%.

The role of agriculture is small. Coconut palm, breadfruit, vegetables and fruits are grown on small farms. Cattle are raised on the ranch. Fishing and processing of fish (mainly tuna) are of particular importance.

The length of roads is about 400 km. 2 seaports - on Saipan and Tinian. Of the 6 airports, 3 have paved runways and a helipad.

Every year, the islands are visited by 500 thousand or more foreign tourists (the Japanese predominate, Marianas are the closest Pacific islands to them and memorial sites of the battles of the 2nd World War).

US financial assistance is important to Marian's economy, but its share of the country's budget has declined in recent years as the local revenue base has expanded.

The main export item is clothing industry products. Food, fuel, construction materials and equipment are imported. The main partners are the USA and Japan.

The school education system includes public (primary and secondary schools) and private schools. You can continue your studies at Northern Marian College, as well as in educational institutions in the USA.

The Mariana Islands are an archipelago of fifteen large and several small islands in the west-central Pacific Ocean. The islands form the northern part of the Western Pacific subregion of Micronesia and consist of two political and administrative entities: Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Both have the status of an unincorporated organized territory of the United States. This means that they are not part of the United States, but are their possession, and the US Constitution has limited application here. Moreover, the US Congress forms the local government.
The archipelago is divided into two chains - northern and southern, formed about 20 million years ago. The appearance of both chains above the water surface was the result of the displacement of the Pacific Plate under the Mariana Plate. Along the islands in the zone of convergence of two plates, the deepest section of the bottom of the World Ocean was formed. As of 2011, its depth is 10,994 ± 40 m below sea level.
The islands of the northern chain are represented by volcanic cones, some of which are active, up to 965 m high. In total, there are about 50 underwater volcanoes in the archipelago area; 11 stratovolcanoes form the islands. The southern chain is represented by coral and tectonic volcanoes.
The Mariana Islands are in an area of ​​tectonic activity, and earthquakes are not uncommon here. In addition, the archipelago is located in a tropical climate zone, so typhoons often pass here.
Unlike many Pacific islands, the Mariana Islands are covered in dense rainforest; There are also areas of savannas, the vegetation of which is represented by flowerless cryptogamous plants: ferns, horsetails.

History of discovery

The Mariana Islands, located on the edge of the Mariana Trench, were inhabited, presumably, no later than 1500-1400. BC e. The first inhabitants of the islands of the archipelago were immigrants who arrived from the Philippine Islands.
The islands were discovered by Europeans in the 16th century. The discoverer of the archipelago was Ferdinand Magellan himself (1480-1521), a Spanish-Portuguese navigator. During his famous - and the very first in history - trip around the world on March 6, 1521, Magellan saw a chain of islands in the ocean. It is believed that the great explorer landed on the island of Guam, but it could have been a small island near Guam.
Magellan tried to start exchange and trade with the local inhabitants, who called themselves Tao-tao-tano, or “people of the earth,” and from the Europeans received the name Khachamori (Chamorro). They were typical Micronesians, and even managed to create a semblance of civilization. Its remains are preserved on the island of Tinian in the form of limestone latte columns dating back to the 9th century.
But Magellan failed to establish a dialogue with the natives: they stole a ship’s boat from the Europeans, thus provoking a serious conflict. As a result, the sailors killed seven Chamorros, returned the boat, replenished food supplies and left the island. Magellan, in memory of the tragic events, named the archipelago the Robber Islands (Islas de los Ladrones).
The Mariana Islands stretch from north to south. The island of Guam, which is a separate administrative unit, is the largest and southernmost island of the archipelago. Its area is 541.3 km 2 - 77.7 km 2 more than the total area of ​​​​the remaining land areas called the Northern Mariana Islands.
The Mariana Islands served as a transit point for Spain's Manila galleons for many years, and in the 20th century. acquired military importance. It was from here that the bombers that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki took off.
The islands received their current name in 1667, when Spain officially claimed rights to them. In Spanish it sounded "Las Marianas", in honor of the Spanish Queen Marianna of Austria (1634-1696).
From the second half of the 17th century. The colonization of the islands began, missionaries were sent here. Local leaders prevented the spread of Catholicism, and attacks on mission members led to a war between the Spaniards and the natives, which broke out in 1672 and lasted 25 years.
In just one hundred years of colonization, most of the Chamorros died from diseases brought to the islands by the Spaniards. Those who managed to survive mixed with the Spaniards. Mestizos - descendants of mixed marriages - still live in the Mariana Islands.
For the Spaniards, the islands served as a stopover for the so-called Manila galleons, which sailed between the Mexican and Philippine islands. The islands remained a Spanish colony until the Spanish-American War (1898), following which the Spanish transferred Guam to the Americans. This year began the political separation of Guam from the other islands of the archipelago. Under the treaty of 1899, the Spaniards sold the remaining Mariana Islands to Germany, which annexed them to its protectorate of New Guinea.
In 1914, Japan occupied the Northern Mariana Islands, creating large sugar cane plantations there. Later, during the Second World War, the archipelago became the scene of fierce battles between the Japanese and Americans. 1944 was especially bloody for the islands, when the Americans lost more than 2 thousand people killed and wounded, and over 40 thousand Japanese were killed or committed hara-kiri. At first, the Japanese even managed to capture American Guam.
However, the Americans regained Guam and captured the Northern Mariana Islands, subsequently using them as an airfield for bombing Japan. Both planes with atomic bombs (Enola Gay and Boxcar), which dropped their cargo on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, took off from the “Northern Airfield” of Tinian Island in the Mariana Islands.
After the end of the war, all of the Mariana Islands came under full US control. America did not merge them with Guam, but created a separate administrative territory, the Northern Mariana Islands, where the head of state is a US-appointed governor.
On the island of Guam, the largest of the Mariana Islands, the Americans established the largest Pacific naval and air force bases, including Andersen and Apra Harbor. They are served by the majority of the island's population. Here, on Guam, is the city of Hagatna, the main passenger and fishing port of the archipelago.
Currently, the Mariana Islands have become a tourist center in the western Pacific Ocean. Actually, it was thanks to American military personnel that the Mariana Islands earned fame as one of the best resort areas in the Pacific Ocean.
The most ancient landmark of the archipelago is the preserved stone latte pillars. The origin and purpose of the pillars are unknown; there are only assumptions that they served for some mysterious religious purposes. There are about 500 of them in total, and they are often compared to the stone sculptures on Easter Island.

general information

Location: West Pacific.

Islands: 15 large islands (Agihan, Agrihan, Alamagan, Anatahan, Asuncion, Guam, Guguan, Maug, Pagan, Rota, Saipan, Sarigan, Tinian, Farallon de Medinilla, Farallion de Pajaros) and several small islands and reefs .
Origin of the islands: tectonic, volcanic, coral.

Administrative affiliation: unincorporated organized territories of the United States.

Administrative division: Guam island, Northern Mariana Islands.

Administrative center: Hagatna (Guam Island) - 1051 people, 2010; Saipan (Northern Mariana Islands) - 48,220 people, 2010

Languages: Guam island - English (official), Chamorro, Filipino languages; Northern Mariana Islands - Chamorro, English (official), Filipino languages, Chinese.

Ethnic composition: Guam Island: Chamorro - 37.1%, Filipinos - 26.3%, other Oceanians - 11.3%, whites - 6.9%, other Asians - 6.3%, other ethnic groups - 2.3%, mestizos - 9.8%, 2000; Northern Mariana Islands: Asians - 56.3%, Oceanians - 36.3%, mestizos - 4.8%, whites - 1.8%, others - 0.8%, 2000

Religions: Catholicism, local beliefs.

Currency unit: U.S. dollar.
The most important port: Hagatna (Guam island).

Major airports: international airport Antonio B. Won Pata (Guam Island), Saipan International Airport. Francisco Sea Ada (Saipan Island, Northern Mariana Islands).

Numbers

Area: 1004.9 km2.

Length: 2519 km.

Distance: 2500 km from the Philippine Islands, 2500 km from the island of New Guinea.
Guam Island

Area: 541.3 km2.

Population: 160,378 people. (2013).

Population density: 296.3 people/km 2 .

Urban population: 93% (2010).

125.5 km.
Highest point: Lam Lam Peak (406 m).
Northern Mariana Islands

Area: 463.6 km2.

Population: 51,170 people. (2013).

Population density: 110.4 people/km 2 .

Urban population: 91% (2010).

Length of coastline: 1482 km.
Highest point: Agrikhan volcano on the island of the same name (965 m).

Climate and weather

Tropical sea. The influence of trade winds.
Average annual temperature:+24 - +30°С.

Rainy season: July-October.

Average annual precipitation: 1800-2300 mm.
Relative humidity: 78-82%.

Frequent typhoons.

Economy

GDP: Guam ($4.6 billion, per capita - $28,700, 2010), Northern Mariana Islands ($733 million, per capita - $13,600, 2010).

Agriculture: crop farming (sugar cane, bananas, coffee, cotton, taro, citrus fruits, copra, vegetables, breadfruit), livestock farming (poultry farming, pig farming, dairy and meat farming).
Maintenance of US Air Force and Navy bases (Guam Island).
Industry: construction, food, textile.
Minerals: phosphorites, sulfur, iron and manganese ores.
Fishing (tuna).
Services: tourism, trade, financial.

Attractions

■ Guam Island: Pati Point Nature Reserve, ruins of Kaca-Gobierno (Hagatna, Governor's Palace, 1736), statue of Pope John Paul II (Hagatna), mini Statue of Liberty in Paseo de Susanna (Hagatna), Dolce Nombre Cathedral de Maria Agana (Hagatna), Plaza de Espain (Hagatna), Latte Stone Park (Hagatna), Fort Santa Agueda (Hagatna), World War II Memorial Park (Fonte Plateau Unit), Tailfuck Bridge (1785), Guam Museum (Adelup Point Peninsula), WWII Japanese Coastal Gun Exhibit, University of Guam Naval Laboratory, Ty Lovers Point Limestone Cliffs, Cashing Zoo, China Park, Gef Pago Inalahan Village , Gadao Cave, Talofofo Falls, Guam Historical Museum, Yokoi Caves, Merizo Bell Chapel (1910), Spanish Fort Nuestra de La Soledad,
■ Northern Mariana Islands: latte columns, San Jose Catholic Church (Tinian, 1956), Sugar King Park (Saipan), American Memorial Park (Saipan), Banadero Limestone Cave (Saipan), Laderan Tangke Cliffs (Saipan) ), Korean Peace Park (in memory of Korean women taken by the Japanese to work on Saipan, 1981), natural Grotto Cave, Taga House (residence of Taga the Great, king of the ancient Chamorro state, Tinian).

Curious facts

■ The area of ​​the island of Guam is only three times larger than the area of ​​the US capital, Washington.
■ In addition to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands have the status of an unincorporated organized territory of the United States.

■ The limestone latte columns on Tinian Island are massive columns made of fossilized coral and limestone, up to 2 m wide and up to 4.5 m high, with a rounded top. Ancient Spanish sources report that funeral urns of the Chamorro people were embedded in the columns. Images of the latte column are present on the flag and coat of arms of the Northern Mariana Islands.
■ In 1899, the Spaniards sold the northern part of the Mariana Islands to Germany for 837,500 German gold marks, which is approximately $4.1 million at today's exchange rates.
■ During World War II, the island of Guam became the first American territory to be occupied by the Japanese. Japan captured the island by attacking it on December 8, 1941, the same day as the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese actually attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th, but the date line in the Pacific Ocean must be taken into account.
■ Residents of Guam are recognized as US citizens without the right to participate in national elections. Guam has one nonvoting, two-year delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Citizens of Russia and Belarus do not need a visa to the Northern Mariana Islands in 2019. However, you can stay here for no more than 45 days, and the purpose of the visit should be tourism or a guest visit.

The following documents must be presented at the point of arrival:

1. international passport
2. return flights
3. completed migration card (forms I-94 and I-736), forms are usually issued on the plane. Here you can download

Registration of entry permit

This entry permit is no longer required in 2019. It was required several years ago until January 15, 2012, after which it was abolished, now a tourist only needs to show a return ticket, a valid international passport and

To travel to the islands, tourists had to obtain entry permission in advance. If you were on a tour, then this was handled by the travel agency. If the tourist was traveling on his own, then he needed to provide documents to the Immigration Department of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Long-term stay in the Mariana Islands

The Northern Mariana Islands are under the jurisdiction of the United States; for a longer stay on their territory, Russians will need.

Also, during a visa-free stay on the islands, it is prohibited to enter other US territories, with the exception of Guam.

Ukrainians need to obtain a US visa to visit the archipelago for any period of time; there is no visa-free entry for them.

Mariana Trench and Everest - most people remember these names from a school geography course. The first is the deepest point on the planet, the second is the highest mountain. Height and depth are measured from ocean level. In absolute value, the deepest trough overtakes the highest peak by a significant margin.

The Mariana Trench on the world map should be looked for in the Pacific Ocean northeast of the Philippine archipelago (southeast of the Japanese Islands); it is a semicircular trench approximately 1,500 km long, directed with its convex part to the east. The deepest point of the trench is called the Challenger Deep and is 10,994 meters deep.

The Mariana Trench is named after the adjacent Mariana Islands, which stretch along the western part of the trench. The island of Guam, closest to the Challenger Deep, is located 340 km northeast of it. Coordinates of the deepest point of the world's oceans: 11°22’23.9″N, 142°35’30.1″E.

The trench is located at the junction of two tectonic plates, and its relief is a relatively flat bottom strip no wider than 5 km between two steep slopes. In some places along its length the bottom has a stepped structure and mountain ranges. The water pressure at the lowest point is approximately 108 MPa, which is 1,072 times higher than normal atmospheric pressure.

The depression was first discovered by the English sailing-steam corvette Challenger during the world's first comprehensive oceanographic expedition in 1875. The depth was then determined twice with results of 8,367 m and 8,184 m, which made it possible to call this depression the deepest on the planet. In 1951, the British scientific vessel Challenger II conducted ocean research in these places.

Using an echo sounder, a depth of 10,899 m was recorded. This point was given the name of the ship. Over the following years, new measurements were taken, the depth was adjusted several times in both directions, the last value of 10,994 m was recorded in 2011.

The difficulty of measuring depth of such scales with an echo sounder lies in the dependence of the speed of sound waves in water on its properties (density, temperature, chemical composition, impurities). These properties vary depending on the depth. To obtain accurate values, it is necessary to take water samples from different depths, analyze them and take the data into account in subsequent measurements.

For the first time, the bathyscaphe Trieste with two researchers on board (US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard) sank to the bottom of the depression (10,915 m) in 1960. Then, unmanned vehicles made autonomous dives several times, and the Japanese Kaiko probe in 1995 took the first soil samples from a depth of 10,911 m.

In 2012, the famous director James Cameron dived to the bottom alone for the first time in history, staying there for a total of 6 hours. Subsequently, a 3D film about the history of this dive called “Challenge to the Abyss” was released. It is worth mentioning that the famous traveler Fyodor Konyukhov also announced his intention to dive to the bottom of this depression in 2019.

Fauna of the Mariana Trench

At a depth of over 1000 m, sunlight cannot penetrate; eternal darkness reigns there. Along with colossal pressure, this makes living conditions in the abyss extremely difficult. Nevertheless, the Mariana Trench is inhabited. The bottom is covered with silt, which, as the first samples taken showed, is saturated with shell organisms; huge armored amoebae (up to 10 cm in diameter) were also found here.

In addition to the simplest barophilic bacteria, crayfish, gastropods, sea cucumbers, and fish live here. Even during the first visual observations from the Trieste bathyscaphe, small fish resembling a flounder were noticed. The specific conditions make the appearance of many local fish striking: they have huge teeth, eyes rotating in different directions (or lack thereof), and sharp spines instead of fins.

Worms up to 2 m long, which have not yet been identified, are also found here. At such depths there are no algae, and the source of food for protozoa is the remains (detritus) falling to the bottom. Recent studies have shown that the bodies of local small crustaceans contain many heavy metals that are extremely toxic to ordinary living cells.

In general, the fauna of the Mariana Trench has been poorly studied; many scientists believe that species long extinct on Earth can be found there.

For example, the teeth of a giant shark, megalodon, were recently found. It is believed that these monsters, which weighed up to 100 tons, became extinct approximately 2 million years ago, and the age of the teeth found ranges from 11 to 24 thousand years.

The research was constantly accompanied by various mysterious stories: unclear huge shadows reminiscent of dragons appear on the monitors, a loud metallic grinding sound is heard, and once, according to the team of the German deep-sea submersible "Hayfish", on the monitor of the infrared camera they saw a creature clinging to the bathyscaphe with its teeth, it had to scare away with an electric discharge.

There are 15 large islands, and there are also several small rocks and reefs. The population is about 215,000 people. The nationality of the indigenous people is Chamorro, which is also the name of their language. It is believed that the Chamorros are descendants of ancient settlers from the Philippines. Currently, there are practically no true representatives of this people left; everyone who calls themselves Chamorro is mestizos.

The nationality of the Mariana Islands is not as easy to determine as it might seem. The southernmost island, Guam, has an independent status; it is an unincorporated organized territory of the United States, that is, the island is not included in the United States, but its territory is considered American, and the islanders (more than 180,000 people) have US citizenship. The capital is the city of Hagatna, located on the west bank.

The Northern Mariana Islands constitute a separate administrative entity - the Commonwealth, the state status is completely similar to Guam (loosely associated with the USA). The main island is Saipan, the capital has the same name.

The first Europeans to discover these lands were members of Magellan's crew, who dropped anchor here in 1521. The meeting with the aborigines ended with the disappearance of the ship's boat. An annoyed Magellan gave the archipelago the name “Islands of Thieves” (de los Ladrones, Ladrones), which existed until the beginning of the twentieth century.

The islands were immediately declared the property of Spain. A few decades later, colonialists began to come here. As often happened, the missionaries arrived first. It was they who gave the territories their modern name in honor of the Spanish Queen Marianna, and since then the Mariana Islands have been called that way on the map. Colonization did not go smoothly. As a result of armed clashes and long-term repression, the indigenous population decreased by 30 times 200 years after Magellan's visit.

In 1899, the Northern Mariana Islands were sold to Germany, and at the beginning of the First World War, the entire archipelago was occupied by Japan. In 1944, US troops landed on the island of Saipan, long bloody battles began with numerous casualties, approximately 40,000 local residents alone were killed.

The Americans set up a military base on the island of Tinian, from which the bombers that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki took off. After the end of the war, the archipelago was for some time under the control of the UN, and in 1947 it was transferred to the custody of the United States.

US citizens do not need a visa to visit the Mariana Islands, and having an American visa in their passport serves as a pass to these territories for citizens of other countries.

The monetary currency is the US dollar.

The Northern Mariana Islands are a state in the Pacific Ocean, made up of several volcanic islands rising from the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Nearby is the deepest oceanic trench in the world, the Mariana Trench, which plunges eleven kilometers into the depths. In this trench, one lithospheric plate dives under another, being processed into magma, which will then pour out through volcanoes.

(Use + and - to zoom in and out of the map)

The Mariana Islands were discovered by Magellan in 1521, however, despite the fact that he was greeted there very warmly, he sailed away from there very dissatisfied. The natives didn’t understand that they couldn’t take what belonged to others and they got their hands full of everything they could reach when they climbed onto the ship. And then they dragged the boat away, for which Magellan called these islands “islands of thieves”, and marked them as such on the map. The islands were not too interested in the Spanish crown, which was the ruler of this territory, in fact only nominally. Nevertheless, missionaries periodically came here, whom the local population did not like and merchants, whom they loved, even adored. And he tried to find a prettier girl, because the merchants always presented him with various useful things and children.

And everything would be fine, but they sold the islands to Germany. The Germans began to create a German order there, but quickly got bogged down in wars on the continent and there was no attention left for the islands. During the Second World War, the Japanese captured the islands and immediately began actively planting them. And even more actively, participate in the breeding program, forcibly marrying your colonists to aboriginal women. However, this violence was forced - almost all the aborigines died out from simple European diseases, so many mestizos were required, resistant to diseases.

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Mariana Islands, traditional center of tourism. Honeymoons are popular here. It’s easy to book a banquet on the “honeymoon” mountain, which hints at a honeymoon. Of course, river cruises are not available here, due to the absence of any significant rivers, but you can easily organize a boat rental, just pay for relaxation and increased exoticism.