Eritrea

hot, dry desert strip along Red Sea coast; cooler and wetter in the central highlands (up to 61 cm of rainfall annually, heaviest June to September); semiarid in western hills and lowlands

dominated by extension of Ethiopian north-south trending highlands, descending on the east to a coastal desert plain, on the northwest to hilly terrain and on the southwest to flat-to-rolling plains

Eastern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Djibouti and Sudan

2,234 km (mainland on Red Sea 1,151 km; islands in Red Sea 1,083 km)

210 sq km (2012)

Africa

frequent droughts, rare earthquakes and volcanoes; locust swarms volcanism: Dubbi (1,625 m), which last erupted in 1861, was the country's only historically active volcano until Nabro (2,218 m) came to life in 2011

strategic geopolitical position along world's busiest shipping lanes

gold, potash, zinc, copper, salt, possibly oil and natural gas, fish

slightly smaller than Pennsylvania

15 00 N, 39 00 E

density is highest in the center of the country, in and around the cities of Asmara (capital) and Keren; smaller settlements exist in the north and south, as shown in this population distribution map