Geographical position of Belarus

Belarus is situated in the eastern part of Europe. It covers 207 600 sq km and it stretches for 650 km from east to west and for 560 km from north to south. Its area is more than the combined size of Greece, Belgium and Denmark. It borders on Latvia and Lithuania in the north-west, on Russia in the north and east, on the Ukraine in the south and southeast and a Poland in the west. The population is over 10 million inhabitants.

Our native land is remarkably beautiful with its blue lakes and ribbons of rivers edged with thick forests, with its endless expanses of fields, meadows and swamp, with its varied and plentiful animal and plant kingdom. There are some 3 000 rivers flowing over the territory of Belarus. The total length of all the rivers comes up to 50 000 km. All rivers of the republic belong to two sea-basins of the Black and Baltic seas. The longest rivers are the Dnieper, the Nieman, the Zapadny Bug and the Zapadnaya Dvina.

The republic has over 10 000 lakes. The largest of them are the Naroch, the Osweyskoye and Drisvyaty. There is a great number of lakes in the north-west of the republic, in the so-called Belarusian Polesye. More than a quarter of the republic area is covered with forest and bushes. The country is famous for its national reservation – Belavezhskaya Puscha. Dense forests of pines towering to over 50 metres alternate with birch and oak groves. Velvety meadows border on many rivers and streams. The pride of the reservation is the aurochs – a rare animal that has survived since the glacial times. With the exception of a few, kept in open-air-enclosures, these animals range freely within the reservation.

The climate of Belarus is continental with a comparatively mild winter and warm summer.

The nature of Belarus has suffered much from the nuclear catastrophe that took place in Chernobyl in 1986. The radiation has spoiled our soil and air, rivers and lakes, it has poisoned our flora and fauna. Besides it has badly affected the health of people and the climate.

Those who lived not far from Chernobyl had to leave their places for ever. It’s important to do our best to decrease the level of radiation. Nowadays a lot is being done by the numerous charitable funds and associations to provide the people living in the contaminated areas with the proper medical treatment and recreation in summer in our country and abroad. But still more is to be done to prevent the Belarusian nation from degeneration.