Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

is a country on the coast of West Africa and is bordered by

Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau ( ; pt, Guiné-Bissau; ff, italic=no, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫 𞤄𞤭𞤧𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮, Gine-Bisaawo, script=Adlm; Mandinka: ''Gine-Bisawo''), officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ( pt, República da Guiné-Bissau, links=no ) ...

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 � ...

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

, and

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

. Guinea is divided into four geographic regions:

Maritime Guinea Maritime Guinea (), also known as Lower Guinea, is one of the four natural regions of Guinea. It is located in the west of the country, between the Atlantic Ocean and the Fouta Djallon plateau. Conakry, Guinea's capital and largest city, is located ...

(Lower Guinea) a

coastal plain A coastal plain is flat, low-lying land adjacent to a sea coast. A fall line commonly marks the border between a coastal plain and a piedmont area. Some of the largest coastal plains are in Alaska and the southeastern United States. The Gulf Coa ...

running north to south behind the coast; the pastoral

Fouta Djallon Fouta Djallon ( ff, 𞤊𞤵𞥅𞤼𞤢 𞤔𞤢𞤤𞤮𞥅, Fuuta Jaloo; ar, فوتا جالون) is a Highland (geography), highland region in the center of Guinea, roughly corresponding with Middle Guinea, in West Africa. Etymology The Ful ...

highlands (

Middle Guinea Middle Guinea (french: Moyenne-Guinée, links=no) refers to a region in central Guinea, corresponding roughly with the plateau region known as Futa Jalon (french: Fouta Djallon, links=no; ff, Fuuta Jaloo). It is bounded by Maritime Guinea, als ...

); the northern

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

(

Upper Guinea Upper Guinea is a geographical term used in several contexts: # Upper Guinea (french: Haute-Guinée) is one of the four geographic regions of the Republic of Guinea, being east of Futa Jalon, north of Forest Guinea, and bordering Mali. The popula ...

); and a southeastern rain-forest region (

Forest Guinea A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

Location

Guinea is in western

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, bordering the North

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, between Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone. Its geographic coordinates are . Guinea's total area is 245,857 km², comprising 245,717 km² of land and 140 km² of water. Guinea's land boundaries span a total of 4,046 km: with Ivory Coast 816 km, Guinea-Bissau 421 km, Liberia 590 km, Mali 1,062 km, Senegal 363 km, and Sierra Leone 794 km. It has a 320-km coastline, and claims an exclusive economic zone of , with a territorial sea of .

Climate

The coastal region of Guinea and most of the inland have a tropical climate, with a

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

al-type rainy season lasting from April to November, relatively high and uniform temperatures, southwesterly winds, and high humidity. The capital

Conakry Conakry (; ; sus, Kɔnakiri; N’ko: ߞߐߣߊߞߙߌ߫, Fula: ''Konaakiri'' 𞤑𞤮𞤲𞤢𞥄𞤳𞤭𞤪𞤭) is the capital and largest city of Guinea. A port city, it serves as the economic, financial and cultural centre of Guinea. Its p ...

's year-round average high is , and the low is . Conakry's average annual rainfall is almost . Sahelian Upper Guinea has a shorter rainy season and greater daily temperature variations. There is a dry season (December to May) with northeasterly

harmattan The Harmattan is a season in West Africa that occurs between the end of November and the middle of March. It is characterized by the dry and dusty northeasterly trade wind, of the same name, which blows from the Sahara over West Africa into the ...

winds.

Rivers and water

The

Niger River The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through ...

, the

Gambia River The Gambia River (formerly known as the River Gambra) is a major river in West Africa, running from the Fouta Djallon plateau in north Guinea westward through Senegal and The Gambia to the Atlantic Ocean at the city of Banjul. It is navigable f ...

, and the

Senegal River ,french: Fleuve Sénégal) , name_etymology = , image = Senegal River Saint Louis.jpg , image_size = , image_caption = Fishermen on the bank of the Senegal River estuary at the outskirts of Saint-Louis, Senegal ...

are among the 22 West African rivers that have their origins in Guinea.

Ecoregions

Guinean forest-savanna mosaic Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

covers most of the country, covering most of Maritime Guinea and Upper Guinea, as well as the lower elevations of the Fouta Djallon. It extends north into Guinea Bissau and Senegal, and east through Mali and Ivory Coast. *

Western Guinean lowland forests The Western Guinean lowland forests ecoregion (WWF #AT0130) is a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of West Africa. It is centered on Liberia, with portions in surrounding countries. It is the westernmost tropical rainforest in Africa, an ...

occupies the southwestern portion of Maritime Guinea around Conakry, and Forest Guinea, along with coastal Sierra Leone, Liberia, and western Ivory Coast. *

Guinean montane forests The Guinean montane forests are a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of West Africa. The ecoregion occupies the portions of the Guinea Highlands lying above 600 meters elevation, extending across portions of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia ...

, cover the Fouta Djallon and

Guinea Highlands The Guinea Highlands is a densely forested mountainous plateau extending from central Guinea through northern Sierra Leone and Liberia to western Ivory Coast. The highlands include a number of mountains, ranges and plateaus, including the Fouta ...

of southeast Guinea above an elevation of 600 meters. *

Guinean mangroves The Guinean mangroves are a coastal ecoregion of mangrove swamps in rivers and estuaries near the ocean of West Africa from Senegal to Sierra Leone. Location and description Guinean mangroves can be found: in the Saloum River and Casamance del ...

, in the coastal estuaries. Enclaves extend north into Guinea Bissau, Gambia and Senegal, and southeast through Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ivory Coast.

Resources and environment

The country's natural resources include

bauxite Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO(O ...

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

, hydropower, fish, and salt. It has 12.21% arable land, and 2.85% of the land is permanent crops. 949.2 km² (2003) of land is irrigated. Guinea's total renewable water resources total 226 km³.

Environmental issues

Current environmental issues in Guinea include:

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

; inadequate supplies of potable water;

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 ...

;

soil contamination Soil contamination, soil pollution, or land pollution as a part of land degradation is caused by the presence of xenobiotic (human-made) chemicals or other alteration in the natural soil environment. It is typically caused by industrial activity ...

and erosion; and

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in th ...

and

overpopulation Overpopulation or overabundance is a phenomenon in which a species' population becomes larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scale m ...

in forest regions. Poor

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

practices have led to environmental damage. Guinea is party to the following international environmental agreements:

Biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

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 ...

, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection,

Ship Pollution The environmental effects of shipping include air pollution, water pollution, acoustic, and oil pollution. Ships are responsible for more than 18 percent of some air pollutants. As for greenhouse gas emissions, the International Maritime Orga ...

, Wetlands, Whaling.

Terrain

Its terrain is generally flat coastal plain, hilly to mountainous interior. The country's lowest point is the Atlantic Ocean (0 m), and highest is

Mont Nimba Mount Richard-Molard, also known as Mount Nimba, is a mountain along the border of Ivory Coast and Guinea in West Africa. The highest peak for both countries and the Nimba Range is at . The mountain is a part of the Guinea Highlands, which straddl ...

(1,752 m). A recent global remote sensing analysis suggested that there were 549km² of tidal flats in Guinea, making it the 47th ranked country in terms of tidal flat area. This is a list of the extreme points of

, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location. * Northernmost point – the northern section of the border with

Boké Region Boké Region is located in western Guinea. It is bordered by the countries of Senegal and Guinea-Bissau and the Guinean regions of Kindia and Labé. Its capital is the city of Boké. Administrative divisions Boké Region is divided into fiv ...

*. * Easternmost point – the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...

of the Gben river and the Férédougouba river on the border with

Nzérékoré Region The Nzérékoré Region ( nqo, ߒߛߙߍߜߍ߬ߘߍ߫ ߕߌ߲߬ߞߎߘߎ߲) is a region in the southern part of Guinea. Its capital and largest city is Nzérékoré. It is one of the eight regions of Guinea. It is bordered by the countries of Sierr ...

. * Southernmost point – unnamed location on the border with

immediately south of the village of Gonon, Nzérékoré Region. * Westernmost point – Ile du Noufrage, Boké Region. * Westernmost point (mainland) – the point at which the border with

enters the Rio Compony estuary. * *''Note: Guinea does not have a northernmost point, this section of the border being formed by a straight

latitudinal In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

line''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Geography Of Guinea