WHAT: A country of islands

WHERE: A little north of Australia and south of China, between Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, and East Timor

HOW MANY ISLANDS? About 17,500! Altogether, they measure almost three times the size of Texas.

WHERE DO PEOPLE LIVE? On only 6,000 of the islands. Two of the largest are Sumatra and Java—places where some of the world’s finest coffee grows.

WEATHER: Hot and humid

LANGUAGES: More than 700 different languages are spoken in Indonesia. Most are tribal languages. They’ve been around for many hundreds of years. The country’s official language is called Bahasa Indonesia.

ANIMALS: Komodo dragons, Javan rhinoceroses, Sumatran tigers, orangutans, and many more

MOST OF THE MOST: Of all the countries on the globe, Indonesia has the most active volcanos. It also has the most Muslims. But about 11 percent of the population claim to be Christians too.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CAPITAL? Jakarta is sinking. The city sits on Java, where more than half of Indonesians live. Jakarta does not have a good water system. Water pipes reach people only in certain parts of town. Everyone else must drill wells. That’s a problem. Jakarta doesn’t have space for all the wells needed. As so many people drill down, the ground around the wells starts to sink in on itself. A new capital city will be built on Borneo . . . much to the chagrin of the maleo bird.

For more about Indonesia, see All about Indonesia by Linda Hibbs in our Recommended Reading.