Myanmar / Geography

Photo: The Ayeyarwaddy is the most important transport artery in Myanmar, e.g. to to move giant teak logs.

Covering an area of 676,552 square kilometers Myanmar is almost twice the size of Germany. In the West and Northwest it borders on Bangladesh and India. In the North and Northeast are China and Laos and in the East Thailand, all direct neighbors of the country.

The most important watercourse of Myanmar is the Ayeyarwaddy, which originates in the Eastern part of Tibet. It flows for more than 2,000 kilometers from North to South and thus divides the country into a Western and an Eastern half. The Ayeyarwaddy is passable for ships for a length of about 1,450 kilometers.

The valley and the delta of the Ayeyarwaddy compose one of the most fertile, agricultural regions of the world.

Myanmar's political isolation over the course of the past decades is mirrored by its topography because on three sides, the Northwest, Northeast and Southeast, the country is flanked by high and almost impassable mountain ranges. In the Southeast the Andaman Sea forms its natural border.

But not only are the mountain ranges screening Myanmar from its neighboring countries difficult to travel. The same can be said for the many more mountain ranges inside the country itself.

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