An island enveloped in mist receives the new day. south of the continent of Asia. This is just one of the over 20,000 islands stretching from Asia to Australia but its interior holds mysteries which have astonished scientists for generations. When the first European explorers came to the Indonesian archipelago, at the start of the 16th century, they could hardly believe their eyes. There before them lay new world of impenetrable jungles and erupting volcanoes – a world of darkness and mystery. Nature seemed to have lost her senses in this distant land. There they’ve found plants that fed on animals and fish able to remain out of water without perishing. Each fresh discovery brought a new mystery. Three hundred years later, at the start of the 20th century, a pilot whose plane had crashed into the sea managed to swim ashore on one of these islands. When the rescue team managed to find him the man appeared to have lost his senses. Delirious, he claimed that the island was inhabited by gigantic lizards which devour the natives. Without realizing it those men had ventured into the “land of dragons. “During the glaciation of the Pleistocene era the polar ice caps increased in size and the level of the sea fell. Some islands remained isolated while others became joined to the continent. Java was one of these. Once the glaciation was over, the sea returned to its original level and Java once more became an island cut off from mainland Asia. From that time on its fauna and flora took different evolutionary roads from those of the continent. Roads which would lead to the creation of legendary creatures. Its isolation and inaccessibility of its jungles shrouded the island in mystery. The rare visitors from the continent returned with strange stories telling of unfamiliar animals. The tales spread, were modified and exaggerated and by the time they reached distant Europe they had became fabulous legends of mythological creatures.
Land of Dragons
