GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF THE USA
The United States of America is a union of fifty states and is the third largest country in the world (after Russia and China). Besides its 50 states the country also includes a federal District of Columbia where Washington, the US capital is located. The country covers the area of more than 9.5 million km2 (nine and a half million square kilometers). It is washed by the Atlantic Ocean in the east and the Pacific Ocean in the west.
The 48 states are situated in the middle of the continent of North America stretching from Canada in the north to Mexico, the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of California in the south. Alaska and Hawaii are not joined to the mainland. Alaska occupies the north-western part of the continent and it borders on Canada in the east. Hawaii islands lie in the Pacific Ocean, to the south-west of the mainland. The USA also has overseas territories with different levels of independence: Virgin Islands, Samoa, Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and some others.
The American landscape is diverse and spectacular. The land varies from heavy forests to barren deserts. Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, the Rocky Mountains, the Great Lakes and Yellowstone National Park are world-famous American natural wonders.
Most of the US people live in the eastern half of the country. The Atlantic coastline is mainly lowland and indented. It is characterized by flooded river valleys and fertile lands. The Pacific coastline is mountainous and cut by numerous fjords. The old and forested Appalachian Mountains extend from the state of New York to the state of Georgia. There are interior lowlands (prairie lands) between the Cordillera and the Appalachian mountain chains. As for Alaska, the mysterious glaciers co-exist with the blooming Arctic tundra there.
