Live cameras: Philippines

The Philippines is a country in East Asia. The country is located on more than 7000 islands. If you take the entire surface of the islands together, they reach almost the same size as Germany. However, significantly more people live there. More than 10 million people live in the capital Manila alone. It is located on Luzon, the largest island of the Philippines.

Another 40,000- 50,000 years ago, people came to the islands. There were not very many inhabitants there for a long time, and there were no large empires. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, Islam came to some islands in the south.

The first Europeans on the islands were Ferdinand Magellan's sailors in 1521. A few decades later, the Spaniards captured the islands. They called them the Philippines: with this they wanted to honor their king, who was called Philip. About 300 years later, the United States of America invaded the Philippines. Then it took several more decades for the Philippines to become independent.

Most of the residents today are Catholics. They speak different languages. A quarter of the residents consider Tagalog, an Asian language, to be their native language. The official languages for the whole country are a form of Tagalog as well as English.

Since the Philippines is located in the tropics, the climate there is hot and humid. However, there are many hills and mountains on the islands. It can be quite cool further up.

The earth is restless: earthquakes occur. Some volcanoes occasionally spew smoke and lava. The last major eruption occurred in Pinatubo in 1991. At the same time, almost 900 people died. Lava gushing over land destroyed a lot. Planes were no longer allowed to fly in certain areas because there was too much ash in the air.