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COMOROS consists of three volcanic islands in the Indian Ocean situated between mainland Africa and Madagascar. Physically, four islands make up the group, but the island of Mayotte remained a French dependency when the three western islands became a federal Islamic republic in 1975.
COLOMBIA is situated in the north of South America, and most of the country lies between the equator and 10°N. The Andes Mountains are split into three ranges in Colombia: the Cordillera Occidental, the Cordillera Central, and the Cordillera Oriental. The most westerly range is the Cordillera Occidental, which consists of fairly low but rugged foothills that rise behind the Pacific coast. On the east side of these, the River Cauca flows from south to north, joining with Colombia’s main river, the Magdalena, 322 kilometers or 200 miles south of the Caribbean coast. Rising on the eastern side of the Cauca valley, the Cordillera Central’s high peaks attain more than 5,029 meters or 16,500 feet, and many are active volcanoes. On the far side of these lies the great Magdalena river, running northwards for a distance of over 15,289-kilometers or 9,500 miles, which is nearly the entire length of the country. To the east again are found the Andean range of the Cordillera Oriental, a region of plateaux, plains, peaks, and lakes.
CHINA or THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA dominates the region of East Asia, not only regarding size since it is the third-largest country in the world but also because of its vast population. One-fifth of the world’s people (numbering approximately 1,393,741,000 ) live in China, and it has a larger population than any other individual country. The area occupied by China includes about 3,400 islands but excludes the disputed territory of Taiwan. The People’s Republic shares borders with many other countries: Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), India, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia, and North Korea. In the east, China has an extensive coastline with the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea, all of which open into the Pacific Ocean.
CHILE lies like a backbone down the Pacific coast of the South American continent. It extends from Peru in the north right down to Cape Horn on Tierra del Fuego’s southern tip, a total length from north to south of about 4,184 kilometers or 2,600 miles. At its widest point, Chile does not exceed 185 kilometers or 115 miles. The country experiences volcanic explosions and earthquakes.
CHAD, a landlocked republic in the center of northern Africa, extends from the edge of the equatorial forests in the south to the middle of the Sahara Desert in the north. It lies more than 1,600 kilometers or 944 miles from the sea. The principal feature is the large, shallow Lake Chad in the west with its surrounding basin and river systems. Lake Chad has a minimum area of about 10,000 square kilometers or 3,861 square miles but swells enormously in the rainy season to about 25,000 square kilometers or 9,652 square miles. The basin is ringed by plateaux and the Enneddi Mountains in the extreme southeast and the Tibesti Mountains, rising to 3,415 meters or 11,204 feet, in the far north.
The CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC is a landlocked country in central Africa bordered by Chad in the north, Cameroon in the west, Sudan in the east, and the Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the south. The terrain consists mainly of undulating plateaux (610-915 meters or 2,000-3,000 feet high) but with dense tropical forests in the south and southwest.
CAYMAN ISLANDS consist of three low-lying islands situated in the Caribbean Sea some 240 kilometers or 149 miles south of Cuba. They are a British overseas territory.
CAPE VERDE, one of the world’s smallest nations, is situated in the Atlantic Ocean, about 640 kilometers or 400 miles northwest of Senegal. It consists of ten islands and five islets, and there is an active volcano on Fogo, one of the islands. The islands are divided into the Windward group and the Leeward group.
CAMEROON is a triangular-shaped republic of diverse landscapes in west-central Africa. It stretches from Lake Chad at its apex to the northern borders of Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Congo in the south. Cameroon is a country of varied topography and natural vegetation. The far north is a region of savannah plain with marshland near the shores of Lake Chad. Eastwards, the land becomes drier, grading towards the Sahel grasslands in Chad. In the west, a belt of volcanic mountains and bamboo forests spill over the border with Nigeria. Further south, the savannah plains rise gradually to form the extensive Adamawa Plateau (Massif de I’Adoumaoua), partly covered in woodland. In the south, the coastal plain is covered with tropical rainforests. In the West, out of this rises a group of high volcanic mountains, including the sporadically active Mount Cameroon (4,100 meters or 1,250 feet).
The BAHAMAS consists of an archipelago of 700 islands located in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida’s southeast coast. The largest island is Andros (4,144 square kilometers or 1,600 square miles), but most islanders live on Grand Bahama or New Providence, where the capital, Nassau, lies. Winters in the Bahamas are mild and summers warm. The most rain falls in May, June, September, and October, and thunderstorms are frequent in summer. The islands are also subject to hurricanes and other tropical storms.