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Honduras GEOGRAPHY
Location and Boundaries
Honduras, located at the widest part of the isthmus of
Central
America, is the second largest Central American republic
(see
fig. 3). The triangular-shaped country has a total area of
about 112,000
square kilometers. The 735-kilometer northern boundary is
the
Caribbean coast extending from the mouth of the Río
Motagua on the
west to the mouth of the Río Coco on the east, at Cabo
Gracias a
Dios. The 922-kilometer southeastern side of the triangle
is the
land border with Nicaragua; it follows the Río Coco near
the
Caribbean Sea and then extends southwestward through
mountainous
terrain to the Golfo de Fonseca on the Pacific Ocean. The
southern
apex of the triangle is a 153- kilometer coastline at the
Golfo de
Fonseca, which opens onto the Pacific Ocean. The western
land
boundary consists of the 342-kilometer border with El
Salvador and
the 256-kilometer border with Guatemala.
Honduras controls a number of islands as part of its
offshore
territories. In the Caribbean Sea, the islands of Roatán
(Isla de
Roatán), Utila, and Guanaja together form Islas de la
Bahía (Bay
Islands), one of the eighteen departments into which
Honduras is
divided. Roatán, the largest of the three islands, is
fifty
kilometers long by five kilometers wide. The Islas de la
Bahía
archipelago also has a number of smaller islands, among
them the
islets of Barbareta (Isla Barbareta), Santa Elena (Isla
Santa
Elena), and Morat (Isla Morat). Farther out in the
Caribbean are
the Islas Santanillas, formerly known as Swan Islands. A
number of
small islands and keys can be found nearby, among them
Cayos
Zapotillos and Cayos Cochinos. In the Golfo de Fonseca,
the main
islands under Honduran control are El Tigre, Zacate Grande
(Isla
Zacate Grande), and Exposición (Isla Exposición).
Data as of December 1993
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