Somalia Horn of Africa
Geography
Somali map
Area:
total: 637,657 kmē
land: 627,337 kmēwater: 10,320 kmē
Area - comparative: slightly smaller than Texas Land boundaries
total: 2,366 km
border countries: Djibouti 58 km, Ethiopia 1,626 km, Kenya 682 km
Coastline: 3,025 km
Maritime claims territorial sea: 200 nmi (370.4 km; 230.2 mi)
Africa's eastern most country, Somalia has a land area of 637,540 square kilometers. Somalia occupies the tip of a region commonly referred to as the Horn of Africa (because of its resemblance on the map to a rhinoceros' horn) that also includes Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. Somalia's terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains, and highlands. In the far north, however, the rugged east-west ranges of the Karkaar Mountains lie at varying distances from the Gulf of Aden coast. Only in limited areas of moderate rainfall in the northwest, and particularly in the southwest, where the country's two perennial rivers are found, is agriculture practiced to any extent.
The local geology suggests the presence of valuable mineral deposits. Somalia's long coastline (3,025 kilometers) has been of importance chiefly in permitting trade with the Middle East and the rest of the Horn of Africa.