Two volcanoes rising straight out of a freshwater lake and joined by a low isthmus into one island. The name is Nawat for two mountains. Concepción is 1,610 metres and still active; Maderas is 1,394 and reckoned extinct or dormant. The island is 276 square kilometres, 31 km long and 5 to 10 wide, in Lake Nicaragua. It is also covered in rock art: a survey between 1995 and 1999 recorded almost 1,700 petroglyph panels on 1,400 boulders across just 15 km of it, mostly on the slopes of Maderas, spirals and stylised turtles again and again. About 34,000 people live there growing plantains and running cattle, and 141,178 visitors came in 2019, most between November and May, all by ferry. The IUGS named it a geological heritage site in 2022 for its volcano spreading.
Rivas, Nicaragua
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