The geography of East Timor exhibits a mountainous terrain on the eastern half of the island of Timor in Southeast Asia (or Oceania depending on definitions). East Timor includes the eastern half of Timor, the Ocussi-Ambeno region on the northwest portion of the island of Timor, and the islands of Atauro and Jaco. The country is located northwest of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in the

Lesser Sunda Islands The Lesser Sunda Islands or nowadays known as Nusa Tenggara Islands ( id, Kepulauan Nusa Tenggara, formerly ) are an archipelago in Maritime Southeast Asia, north of Australia. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands to the west they make up t ...

at the eastern end of the Indonesian Archipelago. 'Timor' is a Portuguese derivation of 'Timor', the

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

word for "

Orient The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the c ...

"; the island of Timor is part of the

Malay Archipelago The Malay Archipelago (Indonesian/Malay: , tgl, Kapuluang Malay) is the archipelago between mainland Indochina and Australia. It has also been called the " Malay world," "Nusantara", "East Indies", Indo-Australian Archipelago, Spices Archipe ...

and is the largest and easternmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East Timor is the only Asian nation to lie entirely within the Southern Hemisphere. The Loes River is the longest with a length of . This river system covers an area of . It is a small country with a land size of . The exclusive economic zone is .Exclusive Economic Zones
– Sea Around Us Project – Fisheries, Ecosystems & Biodiversity – Data and Visualization.

Statistics

; Area :* Total: 14,874 km² :* Land: 14,874 km² :* Water: 0 km² ; Land boundaries :* Total: :* Border countries: Indonesia () ; Coastline: : ; Maritime claims :* Territorial sea: 12 nmi :* Contiguous zone: 24 nmo :* Exclusive economic zone: and 200 nmi

Elevation extremes

* Lowest point: Timor Sea, Savu Sea, and Banda Sea 0 m * Highest point:

Tatamailau Tatamailau (Tetum: Foho Tatamailau), or Tata Mailau, sometimes referred as Mount Ramelau, is the highest mountain in East Timor and also of Timor island at . The mountain is located approximately south of the capital Dili in the district of ...

() ; Natural resources: : Gold, petroleum, natural gas, manganese, marble ; Land use :* Arable land: 10.1% :* Permanent crops: 4.9% :* Permanent pasture: 10.1% :* Forest: 49.1% :* Other: 25.8% (2011) ; Irrigated land: : (2003)

Climate

: Tropical; hot and humid with distinct rainy and dry seasons. Tropical cyclones do occur along with floods.

Environment

; Natural hazards: :

Landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

s are common; earthquakes; and tsunamis. ; ;Environment - current issues : : Widespread use of slash and burn agriculture has led to deforestation and soil erosion. ; Environment - international agreements: : Biodiversity, climate change, climate change-

Kyoto Protocol The Kyoto Protocol was an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that (part ...

desertification Desertification is a type of land degradation in drylands in which biological productivity is lost due to natural processes or induced by human activities whereby fertile areas become increasingly arid. It is the spread of arid areas caused by ...

References

*''Much of the material in this article is adapted from the

CIA World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available ...

2000 and 2012.'' {{EastTimor-geo-stub