Eritrea Geography

Geography ::Eritrea

Location:
Eastern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Djibouti and Sudan

Geographic coordinates:
15 00 N, 39 00 E

Map references:
Africa

Area:
total: 117,600 sq km
country comparison to the world: 100
land: 101,000 sq km
water: 16,600 sq km

Area - comparative:
slightly larger than Pennsylvania

Land boundaries:
total: 1,626 km
border countries: Djibouti 109 km, Ethiopia 912 km, Sudan 605 km

Coastline:
2,234 km (mainland on Red Sea 1,151 km, islands in Red Sea 1,083 km)

Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate:
hot, dry desert strip along Red Sea coast; cooler and wetter in the central highlands (up to 61 cm of rainfall annually, heaviest June to September); semiarid in western hills and lowlands

Terrain:
dominated by extension of Ethiopian north-south trending highlands, descending on the east to a coastal desert plain, on the northwest to hilly terrain and on the southwest to flat-to-rolling plains

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: near Kulul within the Danakil Depression -75 m
highest point: Soira 3,018 m

Natural resources:
gold, potash, zinc, copper, salt, possibly oil and natural gas, fish

Land use:
arable land: 4.78%
permanent crops: 0.03%
other: 95.19% (2005)

Irrigated land:
210 sq km (2003)

Total renewable water resources:
6.3 cu km (2001)

Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural):
total: 0.3 cu km/yr (3%/0%/97%)
per capita: 68 cu m/yr (2000)

Natural hazards:
frequent droughts; locust swarms
volcanism: Dubbi (elev. 1,625 m, 5,331 ft), which last erupted in 1861, is the country's only historically active volcano

Environment - current issues:
deforestation; desertification; soil erosion; overgrazing; loss of infrastructure from civil warfare

Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
strategic geopolitical position along world's busiest shipping lanes; Eritrea retained the entire coastline of Ethiopia along the Red Sea upon de jure independence from Ethiopia on 24 May 1993