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Ilakaka is a small town in the south west of Madagascar along the R7 national route towards [[Tulear]]. Ilakaka is a sapphire boom town that has grown from less than 50 residents in the 90s to about over 30,000 today. Since 2008 most sapphire stones in the world originate from this region, making Madagascar the world's largest sapphire exporter. <googlemap version="0.9" lat="-22.697753" lon="45.21831" type="satellite" zoom="16" scale="yes" controls="large">-22.697793, 45.218654Ilakaka</googlemap>
Directly north of the road lies [[Isalo National Park]], which likely has large deposits of sapphires, but the area is nature protected where mining is not permitted.
There are various other smaller sapphire towns along the road south.
Further information see the [[Madagascar Sapphire Rush]] article.
