The territory vénézuélien extends on
912.050 km². One generally divides Venezuela into 4 distinct
geographical areas: the littoral, the mountainous area, llanos
and plates of Guyana vénézuélienne.
The littoral gives to the East on the Atlantic Ocean. This
part of the East coast marked by the gulf of Bet and especially
by the delta of Orénoque, where are thrown the major
part of water of the territory vénézuélien.
To north, the coast skirts the Caribbean Sea and presents
a rock character, and several beautiful white sand beaches
hide there. It is on this coast, more precisely on the peninsula
of Araya, than Christophe Colomb discovered Venezuela in 1498,
at the time of its third voyage in America. More in the west,
the coast is prolonged to the gulf of Venezuela and the immense
inland sea which is the lake Maracaibo. With broad, all along
these coasts, bathe many islands, from which several are inhabited.
The mountainous area offers spectacular landscapes and beautiful
occasions for the pedestrian excursion. It separates Llanos,
these vast plains of the interior, the littoral and the area
of the Lake Macaibo. The mountainous area is initially made
up of the cordillera of Mérida, an impressive prolongation
of the Andes which is completed with the plate of Barquisimeto.
It continues thereafter with the Caraïbe cordillera,
whose peaks overhang a part of the littoral. The most top
of the cordillera of Merida and Venezuela, the Bolívar
mount, rise with more 5.000m.
Llanos form large plains extending on more of the third of
the surface of the country, since the mountainous landscapes
of the North-East to left bank of Orénoque, where immense
Guyana vénézuélienne starts. The grounds
of Llanos are irrigated by the affluents of the river and
are used especially as places of pasture with the bovines,
the pigs and the horses. One also works there important mines
of iron in the areas of Cerro Bolívar and of El CAM.
Guyana vénézuélienne is the vastest geographical
area of Venezuela. Very isolated from the remainder of the
country and very little populated, it extends on all the southernmost
part of Venezuela, since south-eastern bank of Orénoque
to the border of Brazil. Its landscapes are made of plates
and mountains which do not reach seldom any more a 1000m top.
Except in the area in the extreme south, where landscapes
of savannas open, Guyana vénézuélienne
is almost completely covered with a rich person tropical forest.
The government vénézuélien hardly starts
to emphasize the natural richnesses of this territory, where
several Amerindian tribes live since strong a long time. The
highest cascade of the world is in addition found there: Salto
del Ángel.
