Palau

Palau lies at the western edge of Micronesia, where the Pacific meets the Philippine Sea; it is a sovereign republic in free association with the United States. Babeldaob, a volcanic island of rivers and mangroves, shares a barrier reef with Koror and the Rock Islands, hundreds of limestone knolls undercut by the sea into mushroom shapes and capped with jungle. In a marine lake on Eil Malk, golden jellyfish swarm with a sting too weak to hurt swimmers.

People sailing from the west settled Palau thousands of years ago; they raised stone monoliths such as those at Badrulchau. Sailors from Yap came to quarry the great limestone discs they used as money, towing them home on rafts. Spain sold Palau to Germany in 1899, phosphate was mined on Angaur, and Japan made Koror the seat of its Pacific mandate. American forces landed on Peleliu in September 1944. A constitution of 1981 banned nuclear weapons, and independence came in October 1994.

Rank and land pass through the women’s line, and each village once met in a bai, a high-gabled meeting house painted with legends; those painted beams inspired the carved storyboards sold to visitors. Divers come for the Blue Corner wall and the Rock Islands, Palau declared its waters a shark sanctuary in 2009, and in 2017 it began stamping visitors’ passports with a pledge to protect the islands. Tourism, tuna licences and American compact funds pay the country’s way.