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Guinea

Driving Directions Guinea

GUINEA, formerly a French west African territory, is located at the “bulge” in Africa’s coastline. It is a lush, green, beautiful country about the same size as the United Kingdom. The Republic of Guinea is a country of varied topography crossed by many rivers, including the upper reach­es of Senegal, Gambia, and Niger. Its principal rivers are the Gambia and the Bating. The coastal plain is about 50 kilometers or 30 miles wide before the land rises inland to form the central massif of the Fouta Djallon

Highlands, a sandstone plateau dissected by deep valleys. The Guinea Highlands occupies the south of the country, and between the two upland areas lies an area of the Sahel savannah grasslands extending northeastwards into Mali.

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Mangrove forests blanket the area near the coast, and the Guinea Highlands support a dense tropical forest, but trees are cleared from parts of the Fouta Djallon.

Wildlife is well represented and includes tropical birds, monkeys, leopards, and many species of snakes. The rivers are home to crocodiles and hippopotamuses.

A hot, humid, tropical climate prevails with plentiful rainfall during a rainy season, which extends from May to November.

The majority of people are engaged in subsistence agriculture and the raising of livestock. Still, Guinea has great agricultural potential, and many of the coastal swamps and forested plains are cleared for rice cultivation, cassava, yams, maize, and vegetables.

Further inland on Fouta Djallon’s plateau, dwarf cattle are raised, and bananas and pineapples are grown in the valleys. Coffee and kola nuts are important cash crops grown in the Guinea Highlands to the southwest.

Guinea is rich in mineral reserves, especially bauxite ore, iron ore, and diamonds, and has good potential for hydroelectric power development. Independence was achieved in 1958, and Guinea’s political fortunes and its relationships with its neighbors have strained at times.

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Guinea has four main geographic regions. Lower Guinea, or Maritime Guinea, consists mainly of a coastal plain that rises steeply to high central plateaus known as the Fouta Djallon, or “The Fouta,” in Middle Guinea. To the northeast are broad savannahs in Upper Guinea. To the southeast is a combination of mountains and uplands in the Forest Highlands.

Guinea’s irregular coast is broken up by a number of bays and estuaries facing the Atlantic Ocean.

Did you know about Guinea?

Guinea is the second-largest bauxite producer in the world, possessing more than 30 percent of the world’s bauxite reserves. Bauxite is the main ingredient in the production of aluminum. Major bauxite deposits are found across western and central Guinea. Since these deposits are generally close to the surface, open-pit mining operations are typical.

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