Babelthuap

Babelthuap, largest of the Caroline Islands and largest island within the country of Palau. It has an area of 143 square miles (370 square km) and lies in the western Pacific Ocean, 550 miles (885 km) east of the Philippines. Partly elevated limestone and partly volcanic in origin, Babelthuap measures 27 miles by 8 miles (43 km by 13 km); it is fertile and wooded and rises to an elevation of 713 feet (217 metres). The U.S. military uses the rugged interior for jungle warfare training. In 2006 the national capital, formerly at Koror city, was established at Melekeok in eastern Babelthuap.

Sighted (1543) by the Spanish navigator Ruy López de Villalobos, it possesses stone ruins and sculptures of an ancient culture in addition to decaying remnants of the Japanese occupation during World War II. Subsistence agriculture is the main activity, but there have been attempts to cultivate cacao for export. The island has unexploited deposits of manganese and iron ore, bauxite, and low-grade coal. Palau International Airport is located at the southern end of the island, and a 53-mile (85-km) interior road, constructed by the United States under the terms of Palau’s Compact of Free Association, was completed in 2007. A concrete cantilever bridge connecting Babelthuap with Koror—at the time of its construction (1977) the longest such span in the world—collapsed suddenly in 1996, crippling the country’s transportation, communication, and water networks; in its place a pontoon bridge was constructed as a stopgap measure. It was replaced in 2002 with a suspension bridge built with aid from the Japanese government.