Geography of Croatia
The geography of Croatia is defined by its location— it is described as a part of Central and Southeast Europe, a part of the Balkans and Mitteleuropa. Croatia's territory covers 56,594 km2, making it the 127th largest country in the world. Bordered by Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia in the east, Slovenia in the west, Hungary in the north and Montenegro and the Adriatic Sea in the south, it lies mostly between latitudes 42° and 47° N and longitudes 13° and 20° E. Croatia's territorial waters encompass 18,981 square kilometres in a 12 nautical miles wide zone, and its internal waters located within the baseline cover an additional 12,498 square kilometres.
The Pannonian Basin and the Dinaric Alps, along with the Adriatic Basin, represent major geomorphological parts of Croatia. Lowlands make up the bulk of Croatia, with elevations of less than 200 metres above sea level recorded in 53.42% of the country. Most of the lowlands are found in the northern regions, especially in Slavonia, itself a part of the Pannonian Basin plain. The plains are interspersed with horst and graben structures, believed to have broken the Pliocene Pannonian Sea's surface as islands. The greatest concentration of ground at relatively high elevations is found in the Lika and Gorski Kotar areas in the Dinaric Alps, but high areas are found in all regions of Croatia to some extent. The Dinaric Alps contain the highest mountain in Croatia—1,831-metre Dinara—as well as all other mountains in Croatia higher than 1,500 metres. Croatia's Adriatic Sea mainland coast is 1,777.3 kilometres long, while its 1,246 islands and islets encompass a further 4,058 kilometres of coastline—the most indented coastline in the Mediterranean. Karst topography makes up about half of Croatia and is especially prominent in the Dinaric Alps, as well as throughout the coastal areas and the islands.
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