Geography and Environment of Cote d'Ivoire

The southern third of the country is largely covered by tropical rain forest. A network of interconnecting lagoons parallels the coast from the Ghanaian border 322 kilometers (200 miles) westward. Important cash crops are grown in the forest belt, but to the north lies a savanna area of lateritic soil where vegetation becomes more sparse. In the northwest, the Man Mountains, ascending to 1,400 meters (4,600 feet), break the rolling inland plain that rises from the sea to about 300 meters (1,000 feet) in the north. Four rivers, the Cavally, Sassandra, Bandama, and Comoe, flow from north to south.

Detailed geography