Sierra Leone is a state in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, and Liberia to the southeast. So there are only two neighboring countries.
Sierra Leone literally means “lion Mountains”. The Portuguese explorer Pedro da Cintra gave this name to a peninsula on the coast in 1460. He thought that the landscape here was rough and wild, like a lion. The name was then soon used for the entire coastal section and then also for the later British colony.
On its coast, Sierra Leone is flat, forming a plain. On the named peninsula are the Lion Mountains. The capital Freetown is also located here. There are mangrove swamps, sandy beaches and tropical rainforest. However, the forest is severely threatened by the felling of trees or slash-and-burn clearing. Off the coast are the Banana Islands (Banana Islands), Turtle Islands (Turtle Islands) and the rather large Sherbro Island.
The humid plain is joined by large areas of forest. They are crossed by numerous rivers that converge on the coast in wide estuaries, for example, Little Scarces, Mabole and Taia. This also includes the longest river of Sierra Leone, the Rokel. The Mano River forms the border with Liberia. In the north, the landscape merges into the hot savannah.
To the east begins the Upper Guinean threshold, a highland. Here are the Loma Mountains (Loma Mountains). The highest mountain in the country, the Bintumani, is located here.
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