The Republic of Guinea is located in the West African region. It is a coastal country (340 km littoral on the Atlantic coast) located halfway between the Equator and the Cancer Tropic and between 7°30’ and 12°30’ North latitude and 7°30’ and 15°10’ West longitude.

Guinea is bordered in the North by Guinea Bissau, Senegal and Mali in the East by Cote d’Ivoire and in the South by Liberia and Sierra Leone. In the West, the country opens up to the Atlantic Ocean. The Guinean EEZ stretches off a littoral of about 300 km and covers an area of 59,426 square km.

The country encompasses four natural regions with different biophysical characteristics:

• Lower Guinea or Maritime Guinea, a coastal plain region on the Atlantic frontage;
• Middle Guinea where is located the Fouta Djalon, formed by mountain chains (standing at 1,400 m) carved by the erosion and separated by some deep valleys;
• Upper Guinea which covers the upper basin of the Niger River and its main estuaries is a low altitude region (below 1,000 km) covered by alluvial grass plains and plateaus dominated by savannas with some slight ondulations rarely exceeding 500 m;
• Forestry Guinea in the South East is a mountainous region marked by various massifs of the Guinean ridge including Nimba Mounts (1,752 m) and Mount Simandou, among others.

Guinea boasts a very dense hydraulic system comprising 23 river basins, 14 of which are international. Several rivers of the sub-region take their source from there, the biggest one being the Niger River (4,600 km), whence the name the “West African Water Tank.”