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Honduras, [a] officially the Republic of Honduras, [b] is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, and to the north by the Gulf of Honduras, a large inlet of the Caribbean Sea.
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Honduras, country of Central America situated between Guatemala and El Salvador to the west and Nicaragua to the south and east. The Caribbean Sea washes its northern coast, the Pacific Ocean its narrow coast to the south. Its area includes the offshore Caribbean department of the Bay Islands. The capital is Tegucigalpa (with Comayagüela), but—unlike most other Central American countries—another city, San Pedro Sula, is equally important industrially and commercially, although it has only half the population of the capital.
The bulk of the population of Honduras lives a generally isolated existence in the mountainous interior, a fact that may help to explain the rather insular policy of the country in relation to Latin and Central American affairs. Honduras, like its neighbours in the region, is a developing nation whose citizens are presented with innumerable economic and social challenges, a situation that is complicated by rough topography and the occasional violence of tropical weather patterns, including the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.
More than three-fourths of the land area of Honduras is mountainous, lowlands being found only along the coasts and in the several river valleys that penetrate toward the interior. The interior takes the form of a dissected upland with numerous small peaks. The main surface features have a general east-west orientation. There is a narrow plain of alluvium bordering the Gulf of Fonseca in the south. The southwestern mountains, the Volcanic Highlands, consist of alternating layers of rock composed of dark, volcanic detritus and lava flows, both of middle to early Cenozoic age (i.e., about 2.6 to 65 million years old). The northern mountains in other regions are more ancient, with granite and crystalline rocks predominating.
Four geographic regions may be discerned:
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1.The eastern Caribbean lowlands (including the northern part of the Mosquito [Miskito] Coast, called La Mosquitia) and mountain slopes embrace about one-fifth of the total land area of Honduras. Hot and humid, this area is densely forested in the interior highlands, and lumbering is an important economic activity. Subsistence agriculture and fishing are the main support of the scattered population.
2.The northern coastal and alluvial plains and coastal sierras make up about one-eighth of the land area and contain about one-fourth of the population. This is an economically important region, the clayey and sandy loam soils producing rich crops of bananas, rice, cassava (manioc, or yuca), oil palm, corn (maize), citrus fruits, and beans. Cattle, poultry, and pigs are raised. The nation’s railroads are confined to this northern area, which has four of the five important ports of entry.
The climate is generally hot, with high humidity in the tropical coastal lowlands becoming modified by elevation toward the interior. Lowlands below 1,500 feet (460 metres) have mean annual temperatures between 79 and 82 °F (26 and 28 °C). The north coast is occasionally affected from October to April by cool northern winds of continental origin. M...
Dec 22, 2021 · conventional short form: Honduras. local long form: Republica de Honduras. local short form: Honduras. etymology: the name means "depths" in Spanish and refers to the deep anchorage in the northern Bay of Trujillo.
Mar 31, 2023 · Provides an overview of Honduras, including key dates and facts about this central American country.
Facts. Also Known As. Republic of Honduras • República de Honduras. Head Of State And Government. President: Xiomara Castro. Capital. Tegucigalpa. Population. (2024 est.) 9,895,000.
- Republic of Honduras • República de Honduras
- President: Xiomara Castro
- Tegucigalpa
- (2024 est.) 9,895,000
República de Honduras short form: Honduras int'l long form: Republic of Honduras ISO Country Code: hn Actual Time: Wed-Oct-23 04:06 Local Time = UTC-6h Country Calling Code: +504 Capital City: Tegucigalpa (pop. 850 000); metropolitan area 1.2 million. Other Cities:
Honduras is a country in Central America. Its capital is Tegucigalpa. Most people of Honduras speak the Spanish language (while English has mostly widely spoken). 10,636,227 people live in Honduras and it is 112,492 square kilometres (43,433 sq mi) in size. It is next to El Salvador.
