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The Largest Cities in the World

Last modified by Driving Directions on 12/09/2024

The world’s largest cities captivate us with staggering figures and extraordinary dynamism. Some urban regions now contain populations that dwarf entire countries, while others span territories so vast they’re nearly impossible to traverse in a single day. Defining the “largest city” isn’t just about headcounts—factors like total area, economic might, cultural reach, and global influence …

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Ireland

Last modified by Driving Directions on 01/10/2021

Driving Directions Ireland

IRELAND is located on an island in the eastern part of the North Atlantic Ocean. Situated on the European continental shelf, it lies at the westernmost edge of Europe, to the west of Great Britain. The northeastern corner of the island is occupied by Northern Ireland, which belongs to Britain and is separated from the independent republic to its south by a winding border. Covering 70,280 square kilometers (27,135 square miles), Ireland is slightly larger than the state of West Virginia.

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Gambia

Last modified by Driving Directions on 01/09/2021

Driving Directions Gambia

GAMBIA is the smallest country in Africa. The Republic of the Gambia comprises a small finger of land, pushing eastwards into Senegal from the Atlantic coast in a narrow band along either side of the Gambia River.

The republic is enclosed on all its landward sides by the territory of Senegal. It mostly does not exceed 24 kilometers or 15 miles in width, only broadening to 48 kilometers or 30 miles in the east. The country is divided along its entire length by the River Gambia, which can only be crossed at two main ferry crossings.

The country consists of the river and the low plateau through which it flows interspersed with a few small, flattened hills.

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Gabon

Last modified by Driving Directions on 01/08/2021

Driving Directions Gabon

GABON is a small republic in west-central Africa that straddles the Equator. It comprises the land which surrounds the Ogooué river basin and its tributaries, and most of the country covered with lush tropical rainforests.

Beyond the coastal plain and the flatter land of the valley bottoms, Gabon is ringed by upland plateaux and mountains ranging in height from 900-1,575 meters or 3,000-5,167 feet.

The forests contain a huge diversity of plants and animals, including commercially valuable trees harvested for export. It was at Lambarene in east Gabon that Albert Schweitzer, the medical missionary, had his hospital.

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French Polynesia

Last modified by Driving Directions on 02/26/2020

Driving Directions French Polynesia

FRENCH POLYNESIA is an island territory whose links with France mean a relatively high standard of living for its citizens. It consists of 5 separate archipelagoes whose islands scattered between the Cook Islands to the west and the Pitcairn Islands to the east over 4 million square kilometers or 1.5 million square miles of the southeast Pacific Ocean. Most of the islands are mountainous and volcanic, but some are low-lying coral atolls.

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Guyana (French Guiana)

Last modified by Driving Directions on 03/11/2020

Driving Directions Guiana

Guiana, FRENCH GUIANA, or GUYANE, as the name suggests, remains an overseas department of France, and the mother country heavily subsidizes its economy. It is bounded to the south and east by Brazil and the west by Suriname. The coastal belt is a narrow strip of marshy mangrove swamps, but the land gradually rises inland towards the Tumac-Humac Mountains. These straddle the Brazilian border but are of modest height by South American standards.

Behind the coast, there is some savannah, but 90 percent of French Guiana covered with hot, humid, tropical forests that are thinly populated by people but inhabited by South American jungle animals such as tapirs, monkeys, anteaters, jaguars, ocelots, caimans and exotic birds.

Off the coast, lie the lies de Salut (Salvation Islands) and Devil’s Island, the latter having a particularly notorious place in the country’s history as a prison settlement.

The climate is tropical, with heavy rainfall.

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France

Last modified by Driving Directions on 01/08/2021

Driving Directions France

FRANCE is the largest country in Western Europe with coastlines on the English Channel, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean. It shares borders with Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain.

The lowest parts of the country are the great basins and low-lying plains of the north and southwest, which rise to meet the Massif Central, an extensive upland area, and the higher Alps’ mountains, Jura, and the Pyrenees. Mont Blanc on the France–Italy border is the highest point in the Alps at 4,807 meters or 15,770 feet.

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Finland

Last modified by Driving Directions on 01/08/2021

Driving Directions Finland

FINLAND is a north European republic with about a third of its territory lying within the Arctic Circle. A Scandinavian country of forests, lakes, and islands shares borders with Sweden in the northwest, Norway in the north, and the Russian Federation in the east. Its coastline lies along the Gulf of Bothnia in the west and southwest and the Gulf of Finland in the south. Both of which are arms of the Baltic Sea. Some 30,000 islands and islets line Finland’s coast, with the densest concentration in the southwest and south. The most important is the 6,500 Ahvenanmaa or Aland Islands, which lie in the Gulf of Bothnia between the mainlands of Finland and Sweden.

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Fiji

Last modified by Driving Directions on 01/08/2021

Driving Directions Fiji

FIJI is a part of Melanesia and comprises more than 800 islands, only about 100 inhabited. It is one of the largest nations in the western Pacific and situated around the 180° International Date Line and about 17° south of the Equator. The two main islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, are extinct volcanoes, and most of the islands in the group fringed with coral reefs.

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Faroe Islands

Last modified by Driving Directions on 02/26/2020

Driving Directions Faroe Islands

FAROE (FAEROE) ISLANDS (Foroyar) has been a self-governing region of Denmark since 1948. They consist of a group of 18 basaltic islands and situated in the North Atlantic, approximately halfway between the Shetland Islands and Iceland. The landscape of these islands characterized by steep, stepped peaks rising out of the sea to nearly 900 meters or 3,000 feet and glaciated, trough-shaped valleys.