Welcome to Koror, the largest city and commercial centre of Palau, on Koror Island, also called Oreor. About half of the country's people live here. Under Japanese rule Koror became the administrative centre of the South Seas Mandate, growing from a village of a few hundred people in 1920 to a town of over 2,000 by the 1930s. Much of the town was destroyed during and after the Second World War, though it was never invaded. Today Koror is the gateway to a lagoon of extraordinary limestone islands. Let's head out onto the water first.
Rock Islands
Photo: Luka Peternel · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia CommonsGlide across the Southern Lagoon and you are among the Rock Islands, also called Chelbacheb, a group of some 250 to 300 small limestone and coral islands between Koror and Peleliu. Look at their strange shapes: many are like umbrellas or mushrooms, narrow at the waterline. That notch is carved by erosion and by a dense community of sponges, snails, urchins and other creatures grazing on algae. Sparsely populated and famous for their beaches and blue lagoons, the islands were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012.
Belau National Museum
Photo: Abasaa · Public domain · Wikimedia CommonsBack in town, step into the Belau National Museum, the oldest continuously run museum in Micronesia. It was founded in 1955 by Palauans together with an anthropologist, and its first home was the former Japanese weather bureau. In 1970 it moved to a two-storey building in the Palau Botanical Garden. Inside you can discover Palau's traditional culture and arts, such as bead money, known as udoud, and a house-buying ceremony called ocheraol.
Jellyfish Lake
Photo: Lukas from Munich, Germany · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia CommonsOn the island of Eil Malk, one of the Rock Islands, lies Jellyfish Lake. Its Palauan name means Fifth Lake, and it is one of about 70 marine lakes scattered across the islands. The lake is linked to the ocean only through fissures and tunnels in the limestone of an ancient reef, and that isolation has changed its life. Millions of golden jellyfish migrate across the lake every day, and they have evolved to be quite different from their close relatives in the nearby lagoons.
Etpison Museum
Photo: Abasaa · Public domain · Wikimedia CommonsNext is the Etpison Museum, which opened in August 1999 and tells the story of Palau's history and culture. The land was donated by former President Ngiratkel Etpison, and the three-storey building was designed and built by his children, Shallum and Mandy Etpison. Its displays cover money, archaeological sites, clothing, childbirth ceremonies and traditional canoes, and the influence of foreign powers on the nation. The museum is especially known for its large collection of model bai, the traditional meeting houses, which reveal how Palauan society was organised.
Koror–Babeldaob Bridge
Photo: Luka Peternel · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia CommonsAhead stretches the Koror–Babeldaob Bridge, linking Koror with the large island of Babeldaob. This cable-stayed concrete bridge, 413 metres long, was built by Japan's Kajima Corporation in 2002. It replaced an earlier bridge from 1978, which was for a time the world's largest bridge of its type and also carried fresh water and electricity across the channel. About 10 years after completion, its middle began to sag noticeably, and in 1996 the old bridge collapsed.
Capitol of Palau
Our last stop takes us across the bridge to Ngerulmud, the administrative capital of Palau, home to the Capitol of the Palau National Congress. Its design is based on the United States Capitol. The architect was Joseph Farrell of Hawaii; planning began in 1986, and construction lasted from 1999 to 2006. The complex has three wings: the central one for the National Congress, the west wing for the President and cabinet, and the east wing for the appellate division of the Supreme Court.
Lomakuume
