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Together with Eastern Shore Maryland and Virginia, Delaware occupies the Delmarva peninsula. It lies on the northeast of the peninsula, facing the Delaware River, which broadens into Delaware Bay; the bay in turn joins the Atlantic Ocean at Cape Henlopen. Delaware is sometimes called the Diamond State, a reference to its small size but relative wealth. With the Delaware River and Bay along its entire eastern edge, no place in the narrow state is far from water.
Many small rivers flow across the state, some flowing E to the Delaware, others W across Maryland to the Chesapeake. In the north the Christina and Brandywine flow into the Delaware; in the south the Nanticoke flows SW to Chesapeake Bay. The land is low-lying, from sand dunes in the south to little hills on the Pennsylvania border in the north; the average elevation is c.60 ft (18 m), and the highest point, NW of Wilmington on the Pennsylvania border, is only 440 ft (134 m). The capital is Dover, and the only large city is Wilmington.
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