Eritrea--Geography

CIA FactbookThe World Factbook 1993: Eritrea Geography

Location: Eastern Africa, bordering the Red Sea between Djibouti and Sudan

Area: total area: 121,320 km2 land area: 121,320 km2 comparative area: slightly larger than Pennsylvania

Land boundaries: total 1,630 km, Djibouti 113 km, Ethiopia 912 km, Sudan 605 km

Coastline: 1,151 km (land and island coastline is 2,234 km)

Maritime claims: territorial sea: 12 nm

International disputes: none

Climate: hot, dry desert strip along Red Sea coast; cooler and wetter in the central highlands (up to 61 cm of rainfall annually); semiarid in western hills and lowlands; rainfall heaviest during June-September except on coast desert

Terrain: dominated by extension of Ethiopian north-south trending highlands, descending on the east to a coastal desert plan, on the northwest to hilly terrain and on the southwest to flat-to-rolling plains

Natural resources: gold, potash, zinc, copper, salt, probably oil, fish

Land use: arable land: 3% permanent crops: 2% (coffee) meadows and pastures: 40% forest and woodland: 5% other: 50%

Irrigated land: NA km2

Environment: frequent droughts, famine; deforestation; soil eroision; overgrazing; loss of infrastructure from civil warfare

Note: strategic geopolitical position along world's busiest shipping lanes and close to Arabian oilfields, Eritrea retained the entire coastline of Ethiopia along the Red Sea upon de jure independence from Ethiopia on 27 April 1993