The Indian Ocean covers a 28,400,130 sq. mile (73,556,000 km²) area between the eastern coast of Africa, the shores of the Middle East and India to its north, and is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by Southeast Asia and Australia/Oceania. Home to a great variety of humankind throughout history, the Indian Ocean is also rich in exotic plant and animal species, and still supplies the world with spices such as black pepper, nutmeg, and ginger. While these spices are now used primarily to flavor the world’s cuisines, they were used from earliest times to preserve foods, and were thought to have great medicinal properties. Indeed, during the terrible plagues of the 13th through 17th Centuries, Europeans were so convinced of their curative powers that their countries fought repeated wars and gambled untold fortunes to gain control of the Spice Islands, and the number of explorers and sailors willing to risk their lives charting new maps to reach them is difficult to imagine. Learn more about the Indian Ocean.