Lithuania

Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe.

It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea.

Lithuania shares land borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and Russia to the southwest.It has a maritime border with Sweden to the west on the Baltic Sea.

Lithuania covers an area of 65,300 km2 (25,200 sq mi), with a population of 2.8 million.

Its capital and largest city is Vilnius; other major cities are Kaunas and Klaipėda.

Lithuanians belong to the ethno-linguistic group of the Balts and speak Lithuanian, one of only a few living Baltic languages.

It has around 99 kilometres (61.5 mi) of sandy coastline, only about 38 kilometres (24 mi) of which face the open Baltic Sea, less than the other two Baltic states. The rest of the coast is sheltered by the Curonian sand peninsula.

The main and largest river is the Nemunas River, and some of its tributaries carry international shipping.

Lithuania lies at the edge of the North European Plain. Its landscape was smoothed by the glaciers of the last ice age, and is a combination of moderate lowlands and highlands.

Its highest point is Aukštojas Hill at 294 metres (965 ft) in the eastern part of the country.

The terrain features numerous lakes (Lake Vištytis, for example) and wetlands, and a mixed forest zone covers over 33% of the country. Drūkšiai is the largest, Tauragnas is the deepest and Asveja is the longest lake in Lithuania.

Lithuania has a temperate climate with both maritime and continental influences. It is defined as humid continental (Dfb) under the Köppen climate classification (but is close to oceanic in a narrow coastal zone).