Africa Travel Guides

Geography

Looking like a caricature of some square-jawed, cackling woman with a mouthful of Gambia, Senegal sits at the westernmost edge of the African continent. Its borders are met by Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to the south, Mali to the east, Mauritania to the north and the North Atlantic Ocean to the west. The independent nation of Gambia is entirely enveloped (save where it meets the Atlantic) by Senegal's southwestern region, forming the 'lips' of the giant face and separating northern Senegal from its southern region, called the Casamance. The country as a whole is slightly smaller than Great Britain or the US state of South Dakota.

Three main rivers flow through the country: the Senegal in the north, which forms the border with Mauritania; the Gambia in the middle, which is surrounded by Gambia but for its easternmost origins; and the Casamance in the south, which lends that region its name as well as its striking fertility. The north, by contrast, is hot and dry, and increasingly troubled by desertification. The country's lowest points are its Atlantic shores, while its highest lies in the hills of Bassari country in the southeast - the only region where you have mountains, including the biggest peak at around 580m (1900ft).