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| Source: CIA World Factbook |
Rwanda is a small landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of East-Central Africa. It is bordered by Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania.
Rwanda's countryside is covered by grasslands and small farms extending over rolling hills, with areas of rugged mountains that extend southeast from a chain of volcanoes in the northwest.
On the western slopes of this ridgeline, the land slopes abruptly toward Lake Kivu and the Ruzizi River valley, and constitutes part of the Great Rift Valley.
The eastern slopes are more moderate, with rolling hills extending across central uplands at gradually reducing altitudes, to the plains, swamps, and lakes of the eastern border region. Therefore the country is also fondly known as "Land of a Thousand Hills."
It is a tropical country; its high elevation makes the climate temperate. In the mountains, frost and snow are possible. The average daily temperature near Lake Kivu, at an altitude of 4,800 feet (1,463 m) is (23°C. Rwanda is considered the lightning capital of the world, due to intense daily thunderstorms during the two rainy seasons February–May and September–December.
Annual rainfall averages 31 inches 830 mm but is generally heavier in the western and northwestern mountains than in the eastern savannas. The country covers an area of 26,338 square kilometers [more...]
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