Geography Notes
In primo piano
The ancient city of Dougga, located in the highlands of northwestern Tunisia about 110 kilometers southwest of Tunis, sits on a magnificent ridge with views across olive trees and wooded valleys that have barely …
In the desert interior of southern Tunisia, between the oasis towns of Tozeur and Kebili, an extraordinary landscape spreads to the horizon: the Chott el Djerid. It is the largest salt lake in the entire Sahara Desert, …
Just beyond Stockholm's city center, solid land dissolves into sea and rock: the Stockholm Archipelago is made up of thousands of islands, islets, and skerries spread across the Baltic Sea. Estimates …
Torres del Paine National Park, in Chilean Patagonia, is one of South America's most famous protected places, known for its stunning granite towers, glacial lakes, and windswept steppe. The park is located in the …
The Serengeti National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981, is home to one of the world's most remarkable biological occurrences: the Great Migration. Over a million wildebeest, accompanied …
The Delta Works, a massive system of dams, dikes, sluices, locks, levees, and storm surge barriers in the southwest, showcases Dutch water engineering at its best. Built in response to the catastrophic North …
Mtirala National Park, located in Georgia's Adjara region in the southwestern Lesser Caucasus mountains, is one of the world's most unique ecosystems and was recognized as a UNESCO …
The Western Desert, also known as the Libyan Desert, is Egypt's largest geographical region, accounting for about two-thirds of the country's total land area—roughly 680,650 square kilometers of mostly …
The Caucasus Mountains, which run over 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea, are the traditional border between Europe and Asia. Georgia is located on the …
Rising from the rice fields of Albay province in southern Luzon, Mayon Volcano is one of the most iconic natural landmarks on Earth. Its near-perfect symmetrical cone soars 2,463 meters (8,081 feet) above sea level …
The Red Sea, which stretches over 2,000 kilometers between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, serves as the planet's last major coral sanctuary. This body of water is home to over 1,000 distinct species of fish …
Along the northern shore, the Wadden Sea creates a totally distinct Dutch seascape: a vast, shallow tidal realm of mudflats, sandbars, and salt marshes. Shared by the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark, it is …
Palawan, often voted the world's most beautiful island, conceals one of nature's greatest secrets: the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River. This 8.2-kilometer (5.1-mile) navigable waterway winds through a …
Georgia's Black Sea coast, covering about 310 kilometers (193 miles), concentrates natural beauty and strategic significance in the port city of Batumi. Located at the southeastern end of the sea, …
Much of the Netherlands would not exist without polders—large expanses of land recovered from lakes, marshes, and the sea by enclosing them with dikes and pumping out the water. Engineers estimate that …
The Chocolate Hills are a vast field of at least 1,260—and potentially up to 1,776—perfectly symmetrical, cone-shaped hills spread across 50 square kilometers of Bohol province. During the dry season …
Mount Olympus rises magnificently along Greece's northern border between Thessaly and Macedonia. Reaching 2,917 meters (9,570 feet) at its highest peak, Mytikas, it is Greece's tallest …
The Asir Mountains, which rise sharply along Saudi Arabia's southwestern border with Yemen, offer a landscape so unlike popular depictions of Arabia that tourists frequently struggle to reconcile these …
The Midnight Sun is one of nature's most captivating occurrences, occurring only above the Arctic Circle during the summer months when the sun never sets below the horizon, even at midnight. This celestial …
Hell's Gate National Park, located at the floor of the Great Rift Valley, offers one of Kenya's most intense geological experiences. Despite its modest size of 68 square kilometers, the park is a …
The Rub' al Khali—the "Empty Quarter"—is the world's largest continuous sand desert and one of the most hostile locations. This vast wilderness of towering dunes, salt flats, and desolate gravel plains has …
The Norwegian fjords are among the world's most stunning natural features, created by glaciers over millions of years. A fjord is a deep, U-shaped valley formed by glacial ice and later inundated by the …
Meteora is one of the world's most breathtaking geological and cultural landscapes, featuring towering sandstone pillars that rise steeply from the Thessalian plain. Capped by Byzantine monasteries that …
The Lofoten archipelago stretches like a stunning rock wall erupting from the Norwegian Sea, between latitudes 67° and 68° north of the Arctic Circle. This series of islands—including Austvågøy, Gimsøy, …
Santorini (Thera) is one of the world's most spectacular volcanic landscapes and Greece's most iconic island destination. This horseshoe-shaped archipelago was shaped by the Minoan eruption …
Saudi Arabia's western coastline along the Red Sea stretches for about 1,800 kilometers (1,118 miles), from the Gulf of Aqaba in the north to the Yemeni border in the south, and includes one of the world's most …
Rising 5,895 meters (19,341 ft) above the East African plains, Mount Kilimanjaro is Africa's tallest mountain and the world's highest free-standing peak. This massive geological wonder is not a single mountain, …