Home > Geography of Belarus

Location:

Eastern Europe, east of Poland

Geographic coordinates:

53° 00′ N, 28° 00′ E

Map references:

Commonwealth of Independent States

Area:

• Total: 207,600 km²
• Land: 207,600 km²
• Water: 0 km²

Area comparative:

• Australia comparative: slightly smaller than Victoria
• Canada comparative: half the size of Newfoundland and Labrador
• Europe comparative: 13th place, slightly smaller than the United Kingdom and Romania
• United States comparative: slightly smaller than Kansas

Land boundaries:

• Total: 3,098 km
• Border countries: Latvia 141 km, LithuaniaThe Republic of Lithuania ( Lithuanian Lietuva Polish Litwa, German Litauen, French Lituanie, Spanish Lituania, Estonian Lituania, Finnish Liettua) is a republic in Northeastern Europe. One of the three Baltic States along the Baltic Sea, it shares border 502 km, Poland 605 km, RussiaThe Russian Federation ( Russian: , transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija , or Russia (Russian: , transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija , is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. With 959 km, UkraineUkraine Ukrayina in Ukrainian; in Russian) is a republic in eastern Europe which borders the Black Sea to the south, the Russian Federation to the east, Belarus to the north, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west and Romania and Moldova to the west and 891 km

Coastline:

0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:

None (landlocked)

Climate:

Transitional between continental and maritime; cold winters (average January temperatures are in the range -8C to -2C), cool and moist summers (average temperature 15C to 20C).

Terrain:

Generally flat, containing much marshland

Elevation extremes:

• Lowest point: Nyoman River 90 mFor other uses of "metre" and "meter", see Metre (disambiguation). The metre is the basic unit of length in the International System of Units (SI: Systeme International d'Unites). It is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in absolute vacu
• Highest point: Dzyarzhynskaya Hara 346 m

Natural resources:

Forests, peat deposits, small quantities of oil and natural gas, granite, dolomitic limestone, marl, chalk, sand, gravel, clay

Land use:

• Arable land: 29%
• Permanent crops: 1%
• Permanent pastures: 15%
• Forests and woodland: 34%
• Other: 21% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land:

1,150 km² (1998 est.)

Water resources:

About 20,000 rivers and streams, with the total length of 91,000 km, and about 11,000 lakes, including 470 lakes with the area exceeding 0.5 km² each. Naroch is the largest lake (79.2 km², the deepest point about 25 m). Significant amounts of swampy area, notably in the PolesiePolesie ( Polish spelling; Polissya in Ukrainian, Poles'ye in Russian, Palyessye or Palesse in Belarusian) is one of the largest European swampy areas, located in the South-Western part of the Eastern-European Lowland, within the territories of Belarus, U region.

Natural hazards:

NA

Environment - current issues:

• Soil pollution from pesticide use.
• South-Eastern part of the country contaminated with fallout from 19861986 is a common year starting on Wednesday. Events January January 1 Spain and Portugal enter the European Community January 1 Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands and is separated from the Netherlands Antilles. January 9 After losing a pa nuclear reactor accident at Chornobyl, UkraineUkraine Ukrayina in Ukrainian; in Russian) is a republic in eastern Europe which borders the Black Sea to the south, the Russian Federation to the east, Belarus to the north, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west and Romania and Moldova to the west and, receiving about 60% of total fallout. Vast amounts of territory in Homyel and Mahilyow voblasts rendered uninhabitable. Roughly 7,000 km² (2,700 sq.mi.) of soil were contaminated by caesium-137 to levels greater than 15 curies per km², i.e., taken from human usage for indefinite time. In 1996 the areas contaminated over 1 curies per km² of caesium-137 constituted about 21% of the total territory (only 1% decrease compared to 1986), and in 2002 over 1.5 mln people still lived in this area.

Environment - international agreements:

• Party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands

Signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:

Landlocked