Swaziland By: khloejewell

Location is one of the biggest parts of traveling, if I do say myself the location of Swaziland is quite weird compared to other countries. Swaziland is located inside the border of South America. It's very small compared to other countries in Africa. Most countries are larger but they do have there fair share of small countries. They are all wonderful countries but I would prefer to visit the small country of Swaziland over the larger ones any other any day.

The geographic theme of location is the relative or exact location of a place. This country's relative location sounds weird but it definitely answers the question. The relative location is located south of the Equator, positioned in southern Africa, Swaziland is in both the eastern and southern hemispheres. Swaziland is landlocked and bordered by Mozambique and South Africa. the capital of Swaziland is Mbabane, and its exact location is 26.3054 south, 31.1367 east.

These are four different locations in Mbabane. The capital of Swaziland. Quite beautiful for a small country.

The Lubombo mountains stretch along the eastern edge of Swaziland. The climate of Swaziland can be described as many things such as moderate, near-temp, subtropical and similar-arid. There is a lot of countries just like Swaziland in Africa that aslo have this climate. Some body's of water in Swaziland are as beautiful as body's of water around America. For example Komati river, this river is 298 miles long it stretches through naighboring countries Mozambique and South Africa. It gets its name from inkomati, meaning cow, as its perennial nature is compared to a cow that always has milk. Another river in Swaziland is Maputo river, it's not much a river as it is a gorge. The gorge in total was 13 km which also means 8.1 miles, this gorge was a boundary between Swaziland and South America.

What continent Swaziland is located on and its bordering countries.

This photo is an over look of Swazilands country side. Yes it is blurry but you can imagine its beauty.

This photo is blurry but it is after a rain in Swaziland showing a slight rainbow.

People farming in Swaziland. Showing there climate is great for those very health green plants.

This is a photo of Komati river in Swaziland.

When you think of important factors of traveling and where you want to travel I hope you think of place. Its very important To decide if you want to go somewhere.Place refers to the physical and human aspects of a location. Some physical aspects of Swaziland are the natural resources which include clay, coal, small gold, diamond deposits and cassiterite.

These are some of the common natural resources.

Swazilands culture includes stuff much like in America, there is music and food but which each home it is deferent depending on there religion. Swaziland has a lot of different religions but majority is 40% Zionist. Zionism is a movement for (originally) the re-establishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel. It was established as a political organization in 1897 under Theodor Herzl, and was later led by Chaim Weizmann. The other religions found in Swaziland is 20% Roman Catholic and 10% Muslim.

There culture party's are very exotic, fun and beautiful.

Warning: there is no clean version of the reed dance.

The three majority religions found in Swaziland.

There are lots and lots of traditions and holidays celebrations in Swaziland but one stood out to me the most. Umhlanga Reed Dance, this is an annual Swazi Event where tens of thousands of unmarried and childless Swazi girls and women travel from the various chiefdoms to the Ludzidzini Royal Village to participate in the eight-day event. The young, unmarried girls were placed in female age-regiments; girls who had fallen pregnant outside wedlock had their families fined a cow. This traditional event is very different from anything we have in America.

Some photos of the Umhlanga Reed Dance event.

The government of Swaziland is a constitutional monarchy, some cool fun facts of there government is they have a king - king mshlati the 3rd. If the king is not married they would rule with there mother or ritual substitute. There government is much like ours in some ways. They have some votes but it's not over anything major. This is mostly government control decisions.

Human environment interaction is referred to as the ways people change their environment and how their environment changes them. For example, in Swaziland there is a lot of great land to farm on making it easy to farm. Something's they grow are sugarcane, cotton, corn, tobacco and rice. Of course there are different things they grow but those are the main crops.

Some of the main crops grown in Swaziland.

Swaziland has excellent farming and ranch land, 80% of there population is engaged in subsistence agriculture. That makes farming a great job in Swaziland. That isn't the only good common job found in Swaziland, they also have coal mines, where coal miners can find good work.

Some of the good yet common jobs found in Swaziland.

The only environmental problem I came accross is soil erosion which can be caused by overgrazing, were people grow crops in the same soil without proper resting. Another cause of soil erosion is population growth, which is the actual reason why Swaziland has soil erosion.

There is not many endangered animals in swaziland, but there is one. The cape wild dog, also known as the South African wild dog. The only reason why they are endangered is because they are easy prey and the other wild dogs tend to attack these wild dogs. They attack these dogs because they tend to be more noticeable than other animals around. These wild dogs are common to have bright yellow spots which pokes out when around farms of vibrant green colors. Also the fact that there average size it the size of a medium size dog.

This is the cape wild dog, as you can see this wild dog would be very noticeable even at night, making it easy prey.

A way to define the location climate wise is saying you have intelligence, I say this because I am gong to tell you this country is located in the subtropical climate region. If you don't know what a region is it is defined by its uniform physical or human characteristics.

The education system in swazi has things in common with our very own education system but it also has its great differences. The swazis have preschool like we do, that's where children 5 or under start learning. There is primary school which last till the child is 7 years old. Secondary has 2 parts, the 1st part last 3 years so often this first part of secondary school your child is 10 years old. The second part of secondary school last 2 years making your 12 years old. High school doesn't go near as far as ours do, they only work there students to get a GED. (General education and training) The literacy rate in Swaziland is 87.5% on total population.

Children wash their hands at Tikhuba High School in Swaziland's eastern Lubombo District

Children sharing a book in primary school.

A group of children in there school house.

The total population of Swaziland is 1,320,356 there population density is 73.79 per square mile. The area of the country by square miles is 6,704. The GDP of Swaziland is 3,034.22. For so many people on a small country the life expectancy is a little scary. For females and males it is the same number of 48.85 years. If you know anything about life expectancy you know that is a young age compared to America and it is rare for the female and male to have the same life expectancy.

The geographic theme of movement can mean anything but I think my definition is more creative than others. I first heard it from a teacher but now you can hear it from me. The geographic theme of movement is the movement of idea, how it changes everything.

The Swaziland flag is very beautiful if you ask me. It symbolizes many important things each government should remember. The colors on the Swaziland flag are blue, yellow, black, white and red. The flag design is based on a smaller version given to the Swazi pioneer corps, by king Sobhuza the 2nd. The king gave this to them to remind them of the country's traditions and to never change them. The red on the flag represents there past battles. Blue represents peace and stability. Yellow represents the resources from Swaziland. Also on this flag is a Nguni shield and spears, these represent protection from the country's enemies.

Unlike many other countries Swaziland didn't gain independence in a bad way, they just simply had a meeting and decided to let them have there independence. They are a very small country so when Britain had control they didn't see the reason to hold on to Swaziland while other countries were fighting for there independence.

Most of the goods exported from Swaziland is food, due to the amount of farming they do. Other things are nicknacks and stuff you would by at a festival. They don't have a huge import list either, they grow most of there food but they still need other stuff they can't grow like medicines but nothing imported into Swaziland that is a complete constant.

Some of the goods you could find from swaziland.

Swaziland only introduced technology into there country in 2011, since then they have 3 radio channels cell phones and they share there television networks with South Africa. They aren't one to care much about the newest iPhone coming out, I think tats amazing there is somewhere out there where people don't rely on there cell phones and social media. Even there transportation is a little behind. They have a few cars to get around in but most roadways aren't even paved. Even there railroads are not in use because they don't need them.

Technology in Swaziland.

Someone drove there car out to a traditional event. Which is rare in Swaziland.

Swaziland police car, from the capital of Swaziland.

Another car during an event.

A day in a Swaziland high school is completely different from a day in our high school, you go to school for a few hours. When I was a few I say on average 3-4 the weather is hot and the only school houses with power is in the capital. Most kids might even quit school and work full time with there parents on a farm or something of that sort. The kind of fun the students in Swaziland have are there traditional events, there is always something going on. There music is like ours, poppy something you want to dance to. When going to high school in Swaziland you usually have a uniform. School in America is much better than in Swaziland so you should be thankful to have the opportunity many don't have.

Students in Swaziland. Some students have it better but that is because they have the money to go to the private school.

Swaziland elephants sedated and flown to US zoo's in dramatic rescue mission. Three US zoo's say they brought the 18 elephants to save them from culling by Swazi authorities to relieve pressure on other wild like and drought. 3 male and 15 female elephants had been living in the Tiny Kingdoms National Park but had been moved because they were said to be pushing out other wild life and creating intense pressure on vegetation as the region suffers its worst drought in 30 years.

Some of the elephants in the park on the left and a wild elephant in Swaziland on the right.

Dozens of women killed in crash on route to king of Swazilands dancing virgin festival. The king Mswati the 3rd refused to cancel 'his' annual reed dance after the truck accident. Some say 30 women were killed and a reporter who claims he was there said there were 13 deaths, but by 48 hours later there were 65 women who were lost to this accident. The reed dance is originally for the queen of Swaziland but seeing the king has 14 wife's that would be hard. People of Swaziland claim this festival is all for the king now, just so he could pick himself up a new wife.

The reed dance on the left and the king on the right.

I have included a lot of beautiful and interesting things about Swaziland. When people visit Swaziland they are either helping the community or just there to vacation, let me just say Swaziland would be amazing to vacation at. They have a national park where you can visit wild animals. Such as elephants and zebras and anything else you could think of that inhabits Swaziland. They have great homes you couldn't rent there for as low as 6 dollars a house. That makes this a cheap yet very unique vacation. Swaziland is also known for there festivals and events so you would have a great time at a traditional festive event.

This is a documentary about a group of women on there vacation in Swaziland.

Some places you can visit while on vacation in Swaziland.

Credits:

Created with images by James St. John - "Gold mass (alluvial gold) (Kalgoorlie region, Western Australia) 1"

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