Pirates off of Somalia are getting all the attention these days, but there is another place on the global map where piracy is also rampant and less noted. Strait of Malacca The location is the Strait of Malacca, a narrow chokepoint linking the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean where the peninsula of Malaysia (with ...
Melaka (sometimes spelled Malacca) is a sleepy city of 730,000 on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, nestled between Singapore, Malaysia’s capital of Kuala Lumpur, and the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It has a rich history (the famous Straits of Malacca are named for the port), which when coupled with its small size and relaxed ...
Most of us think of piracy as something perpetrated by men with peglegs and parrots, with heroic action as well as villainy and death. We also think of it as something that happened long ago in the Caribbean, or in the Mediterranean, not as a modern crime. The truth is that piracy on the seas ...
Zheng He, considered the “Columbus of China” for his epic voyages of exploration, was born in Kungyang, in Yunnan Province to a Muslim family known as Ma about 1371. His father and grandfather had made the pilgrimage to Mecca and doubtlessly the young boy grew up hearing tales of far away lands. In 1382, the ...