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

Map references: Africa, Standard Time Zones of the World

Area:
total area: 121,320 sq km
land area: 121,320 sq km
comparative area: slightly larger than Pennsylvania

Land boundaries: total 1,630 km, Djibouti 113 km, Ethiopia 912 km, Sudan 605 km

Coastline: 1,151 km (land and island coastline is 2,234 km)

Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 12 nm

International disputes: none

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

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

Natural resources: gold, potash, zinc, copper, salt, probably oil, fish

Land use:
arable land: 3%
permanent crops: 2% (coffee)
meadows and pastures: 40%
forest and woodland: 5%
other: 50%

Irrigated land: NA sq km

Environment:
current issues: famine; deforestation; soil erosion; overgrazing; loss of infrastructure from civil warfare
natural hazards: frequent droughts
international agreements: NA

Note: strategic geopolitical position along world's busiest shipping lanes and close to Arabian oilfields, Eritrea retained the entire coastline of Ethiopia along the Red Sea upon de jure independence from Ethiopia on 27 April 1993

NOTE: The information regarding Eritrea on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Eritrea Geography 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Eritrea Geography 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.