An island, as you know, is a piece of land completely surrounded on all sides by water.
An archipelago is simply a group of islands. I, Vexillographer, am here to share with you
my top ten coolest-looking shaped islands and archipelagos in the world. Let us begin.
Number 10: Deception Island. It's located in the South Shetland Islands right off of the
coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Kinda looks like a horseshoe or one of those neck pillows
you see at the airport. And check out this eastern part of the coastline that looks like
a straight line. It's amazing. There used to be a whaling station on Deception Island,
which later got turned into a scientific research station. But it didn't turn out to be the
most convenient place for a scientific research station, because Deception Island is an active
volcano. Number 9 is Tahiti, which is part of French Polynesia, which is part of France.
Tahiti kinda looks like it's trying to split into two smaller islands. The big part in
the northwest is called Tahiti Nui, and the little part in the southeast is called Tahiti
Iti. Number 8 is the Auckland Islands of New Zealand. They are over 200 miles south of
the South Island of New Zealand, and there have been multiple attempts by humans to live
on the Auckland Islands, but they have all pretty much failed. But for sea lions and
penguins, it's not too bad. It's a pretty weird shape, and I don't know exactly what
to say about it, but it really looks cool to me. Trinidad is number 7. It makes up most
of the nation of Trinidad and Tobago, and I like it 'cause it looks sort of like a rebellious
rectangle. Or a tooth... a very decayed tooth. Number 6: Hawai'i, located in the Hawaiian
Islands of the United States. I really like the triangular shape of the island; it looks
really pretty to me. The name Hawai'i can refer to this island or to the entire state
which this island is part of. To avoid confusion, many people refer to this one as simply "The
Big Island". "The Big Island": not that creative, but I guess it works. Cool-shaped island number
5 is Qeshm, located in Iran. Qeshm is located in the Persian Gulf, and I think you can tell
what I like about this island: it looks like an arrow! And if you look at it on a map,
it's like an arrow pointing to the Strait of Hormuz. So if you're ever looking for the Strait
of Hormuz on a map, just look for Qeshm; it'll point you right there. It might make a really good
cursor for geography freaks. This is the flag of Iran. Point, point. Number 4: the Archipelago
Sea of southwestern Finland. I did not bother making this one out of paper because it includes
thousands of tiny islands. Just look at it on Google Earth or search for a map of it.
It is amazing how tiny some of these islands are. Many of the bigger islands in this archipelago
are part of the Åland Islands, which sort of governs itself though it's not an independent
country. It's technically part of Finland, but it kinda wants to be part of Sweden. Around
1917, Finland split from Russia. Shortly after that, Åland tried to join Sweden partly because
they have a language in common: Swedish. And although Åland never really got to join Sweden
or become independent–they're still technically part of Finland–but around 1920 they were
granted autonomy. Basically, they can rule themselves to an extent, but they are still
under Finnish sovereignty. But anyway, the Archipelago Sea of Finland: it looks cool.
Cool island number 3 is the island of Hiva Oa, located in French Polynesia, again, in
France. This one I find really cool because if you tilt it so that the map has west facing
on top, it looks like a seahorse! Isn't that adorable? I love that. And you can find this
island in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia. Number 2: Sulawesi, located right
on the equator in Indonesia. ... Indonesia. I got it. And no, I didn't grab Monaco's flag.
This is Indonesia, see? I marked it right there. This is one of my absolute favorite
islands because not only is it huge and noticeable if you look at a map of Indonesia; it is,
like, made entirely of peninsulas. I really love that northern peninsula. Look at that.
It's like a squid, octopus, tentacle monster, or something; it's great! Now, you'd think
island shapes don't get any more awesome than that, but you'd be wrong because, in my opinion,
there is an even cooler archipelago. At number 1 on this list of coolest-shaped islands and
archipelagos are the Belcher Islands of Canada, located in the Hudson Bay. Look at that swirly
marble of geographic beauty. Looking at the map, you'd think it's part of Quebec, but
it's actually part of the territory of Nunavut, created by Canada in 1999. The Belcher Islands
are mysterious, hypnotizing, and stunning. How does... seriously... like, how is it possible
for islands to make that shape? And there is even a small community located on the Belcher
Islands, called Sanikiluaq. These islands are amazing, and kind of intimidating to try
to make out of paper, so I didn't make it out of paper. But it's like, maybe you could
make it out of chocolate. It looks like one of those fancy dessert things in some overpriced
restaurant. I wonder if I could make one of those. I am a sweet genius! Anyway, thank
you for coming along this journey looking for weird-shaped islands and cool-shaped islands.
I hope you think they were cool. Share with us in the comments any other cool archipelagos
or islands you know of. And thank y'all for watching. Bye. Some of the larger islands
of this archipelago are located in the west... there goes India.