Malay Archipelago, also called the East Indian Archipelago, is in a part of the Pacific Ocean that has the largest group of islands in the world. The equator runs through the middle of the group. The archipelago lies between the mainland of southeastern Asia and Australia. It includes the Philippines, Indonesia (including the Moluccas and Lesser Sunda Islands), New Guinea, and smaller groups. The archipelago covers 1,114,372 square miles (2,886,210 square kilometers).
The islands have much fine, fertile soil. Oranges, mangoes, guavas, rice, corn, sugar, coffee, cacao, coconuts, sago, breadfruit, and yams flourish. Exports include gutta-percha (a substance similar to rubber), camphor, and other forest products. Several of the Malayan islands also contain deposits of gold, manganese, chromium, iron, sulfur, oil, tin, and phosphate rock.
Naturalists and other scientists have discovered much valuable scientific material in the islands. Their most famous find was the Java fossils. These fossils are the remains of a type of prehistoric human being that lived from about 1 million to 500,000 years ago, and perhaps as early as 1,800,000 years ago. Today, mostly Malaysian and Papuan people live on the islands of the Malay Archipelago.
