Christopher Morisseau
Benin Country Profile
Physical Geography

Benin is a small nation located in western Sub-Saharan Africa. It is a north-south strip of land bordered to the north by Niger, along the Niger River, as well as Burkina Faso, Togo to the West, and Nigeria to the East. To the south lies the Bight of Benin, which forms the northeastern segment of the Gulf of Guinea, on the Atlantic Ocean. This gives the country a coastline of about 121 km, or 75 miles. It encompasses a total area of about 112,000 km2, of which about 2,000 km2 is water. This makes it the 102nd largest country in the world in terms of physical size. Most of the country is relatively flat, with a marshy coastal plain to the south along the Atlantic Ocean. To the north, the country becomes a combination of tropical forest and savanna which gradually develops into low foothills. There is a range of low mountains along the northwestern border known as the Atacora, the tallest of which is Mont Sokbaro, which reaches a height of 658m. …show more content…
The region was claimed by France in 1892 and became independent on August 1, 1960, under the name of the Republic of Dahomey. Between 1972 and 1989, the country was officially Marxist, after which time a constitution was created and it became a representative democratic republic. It became known as the Republic of Benin on March 1, 1990. It follows a multi-party system with executive and legislative branches and an independent judiciary branch.

The capital city of Benin is Porto-Novo, but the seat of government in the country is in Cotonou. The country is divided into a dozen administrative districts known as departments, which are further divided into a total of 77 communes. The largest and northernmost of the departments, Alibori, has a total area of 26,000 km2. The most populous, however, is Atlantique in the south, with an estimated population of 1,396,000