Geography

Republic of Albania is a Southeastern European country. It is located in the West of the Ballkan Peninsula between the geographical coordinate’s 39ο 16’ latitude and 49ο 39’ longitude covering a maximum length of 340 km and max width of 148 Km.

Albanian has a node geographical position in relation with Europe and all the Mediterranean Sea. It is the natural corridor for traffic between Western and Eastern Europe and between Europe and Asia.     

Albania has a general length of the borders of about 1094 km, 657 km of which are terrestrial, 316 km of shore border, 48 km river borders and 73 km lake borders. It is limited at Northern and East-Northern part from Montenegro and Kosovo, at eastern part from FYR of Macedonia, at South and Southeast part from Greece.

Albania is the Central European time zone and hence, is one hour ahead of GTM.

With a surface of 28 748 km2 Albania is placed along the Eastern coasts of Adriatic and Ionian Seas. Only 72 km far way from Cape of Otranto (Italia) and 3 km far way from Corfu Island (Greece).

The Coastal line has a total length of 427 km, 273 km of wich belongs to Adriatic Sea and 154 km to the Ionian Sea.

Terrestrial surface of Albania is 27392.2 km2, consisting of field about 25%. Hills 47% and mountains 28%.

Inland water surface is 1350 km2, composed by natural lakes 325 km2, coastal lagoons 130 km2, artificial lakes 174 km2 and river network 721 km2.

Hilly and Mountain peaks are dominant to all over the space of the country. The highest mountain is Korabi(2751m) within a distance of 148 km . The Albanian Alps, as the main part of unit have an extension of 90 km, with chains  in radial form and average height of about 2000-2500m, the highest one is Jezerca (2694m)

The biggest Lakes of Albania are the Shkodra Lake (surface 368km2), Lake of Pogradec “Ohrid” (surface 363km2), Lake of Prespa (surface 285 km2.
Lake of Butrinti (16 km2 mixed with seawater).
In the massif of Nezhda Mountains 2000m over the sea level there are 7 carstic lakes, Lakes of Lura, wich are attractive for their natural beauties.

The most important Rivers are Drini, Vjosa, Mati, Ishmi, Erzeni, Buna, Shkumbini Semani, Osumi ect.

Climate of Albania is of Mediterranean type, with mild winters and hot and dry summer. Albania is characterized by a great number of sunny days during the year (341 sunny days at Western Lowland and 298 sunny days in Kukes.

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