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BENIN, a republic on the southern coast of West Africa, was formerly called Dahomey after the African kingdom, which dominated the region between the 17th and 19th centuries. In the south, it has a very short coastline on the Bight of Benin, and the coastal region is sandy with many lagoons. Inland, the ground rises to a fertile plain and then to a plateau. In the far northwest, the Atakora Mountains rise from the plateau in the region of the Niger/Nigeria border.
BELIZE is a small Central American country on the southeast of the Yucatan Peninsula in the Caribbean Sea. Its coastline on the Gulf of Honduras approached through some 550 kilometers or 342 miles of coral reefs and keys (cayo). The coastal area and north of the country are low-lying and swampy with dense forests inland. In the south, the Maya Mountains rise to 1,100 meters or 3,609 feet.
BELGIUM is a highly industrialized, relatively small country in northwest Europe with a short coastline on the North Sea. It has three topographical regions: the elevated and forested Ardennes plateau, situated in the southeast near the border with France, Luxembourg, and Germany; the rolling, central fertile plains; and the North Sea coastal plain. The Ardennes plateau is an area of moorland, woodlands, and forests, valued for recreational purposes and forestry. The central plains are a fertile agricultural region crossed by Belgium’s principal rivers, the Schelde and Meuse. The coastal plain is low-lying, reaching only about 20 meters or 65 feet above sea level at its highest point.
BELARUS (Belorussia, Byelorussia), a republic of the former USSR, declared itself independent in 1991. It borders Poland to the west, Ukraine to the south, Latvia and Lithuania to the north, and Russia to the east. The country consists mainly of a low-lying plain, and forests cover approximately one-third of the country.
BARBADOS is the most easterly island of the West Indies and lies well outside the islands that make up the Lesser Antilles. Mainly surrounded by coral reefs, most of the island is low-lying, and only in the north does it rise to 336 meters or 1,104 feet at Mount 4 Hillaby.
BANGLADESH, the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, was formerly the Eastern Province of Pakistan and is the world’s eighth-most populated country. It is an extremely low-lying country in southeast Asia, surrounded in the west, north, and east by India. It has a border with Myanmar (Burma) in the extreme southeast, and it has a stretch of coastline along the Bay of Bengal in the south. Only about 20 percent of its people inhabit the cities and urban areas, with the vast majority living in rural villages.
BAHRAIN, a small, oil-rich Emirate comprising 33 low-lying islands situated between the Qatar Peninsula and the mainland of Saudi Arabia, is a hereditary monarchy. The largest island is Bahrain Island, on which the capital, Manama (Al Manamah), is located. The King Fahd Causeway opened in 1986, links Bahrain Island to the mainland of Saudi Arabia. The highest point in the state is only 122 meters or 402 feet above sea level.
CANADA is the second-largest country in the world and the largest in North America. Canada is a land of great climatic and geographical extremes. It lies to the north of the USA and has Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic coasts. The country has the highest number of inland waters and lakes globally, including the Great Lakes on the border with the USA. The Rocky Mountains and Coast Mountains run down the west side, and the highest point, Mount Logan (6,050 meters or 19,524 feet), is in the Yukon. Climates range from polar conditions in the north to cool temperate in the south with considerable differences from west to east.
AZERBAIJAN, a republic of the former USSR, declared itself independent in 1991. The country was plagued by political uncertainty and conflict with Armenia. It is situated on the southwest coast of the Caspian Sea and shares borders with Iran, Armenia, Georgia, and Russia. The River Araks separates Azerbaijan from the region known as Azerbaijan in northern Iran. Azerbaijan’s territory also includes the autonomous republic of Naxcivan, cut off from the rest of the country by southern Armenia, and the disputed Armenian enclave Nagorno-Karabakh. A mountainous, oil-rich country is bounded by the southeastern ranges of the Great Caucasus Mountains in the north and the Lesser Caucasus Mountains in the west, with the Talish Mountains in the extreme south. Rivers descend from the mountains and flow through lower-lying valleys to empty into the Caspian Sea.
AUSTRIA is a landlocked country in central Europe surrounded by seven nations: Italy, Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Hungary, and Slovenia. The wall of mountains that runs across the center of the country dominates the scenery. With their intervening valleys, the mountain chains run in a generally west-east direction, and the highest peak, Grossglockner (3,798 meters or 12,457 feet), is located centrally in the Tauern range. The mountains’ presence means that the average height of land in Austria is 914 meters or 3,000 feet above sea level.