FACTS ABOUT GHANA

                                    LOCATION

         

Ghana is located on the west coast of Africa, about 750 km north of the equator between the latitudes of 4 and 11.5 ° North and longitude 3.11 ° West and 1.11° East.It is bounded on the North by Burkina Faso, on the West by La Cote D'ivoire, on the East by Togo and on the South by the Gulf of Guinea (Atlantic Ocean). Tema, the industrial city, which is adjunct to Accra, the capital City of Ghana, is on the Greenwich Meridian (zero line of longitude), making Ghana the closest landmark to the centre of the world.

                                                            LAND

Ghana has a total land area of 238, 537 km2 (92,100 sq miles) stretching 672 km North to South and 357 km East to West. Its physical size makes it about the same size as Great Britain. Out of a total land area of 23 million hectares, 13 million hectares (57%) is suitable for agricultural production, and 5.3 million hectares (39%) of this is under cultivation.

                                                        CLIMATE

Ghana has a tropical climate. The temperature is generally between 21-32 °C (70-90°F). There are two raining seasons, from March to July and from September to October, separated by a short cool dry season in August and a relatively long dry season in south from mid-October to March. The north, also with tropical climate, is dry and falls partly within the Sahelian zone. Annual rain fall in the South averages 2,030mm, but varies greatly throughout the country, with the heaviest rainfall in the south–western part.

                                                    TOPOGRAPHY

Ghana is not a mountainous country, but has some high land and some steep escarpments in the middle portions and isolated places in the northern parts. The land is relatively flat and the altitude is generally below 500m, with more than half of the country below 200m. The Volta River basin dominates the country's river system and includes the 8,480 km2 Lake Volta (the largest artificial lake in the world), formed behind the Akosombo hydroelectric dam. The coastal area consists of plains and numerous lagoons near the estuaries of rivers.

                                                     VEGETATION

In terms of vegetation, the north is predominantly savannah and the middle section (extending to the South-West part is typical rainforest, while the coastal section has thicket interspersed with savannah.