Geography of Albania

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Albania map-de.svg
Albania space.jpg


Topographic map and satellite image ( Terra 2003) with drawn national borders
The Albanian Riviera and the Ionian Sea as seen from the Maja e Çikës ( 2045  m above sea level )

The Republic of Albania is located in south-eastern Europe on the western half of the Balkan Peninsula . Together with some ex-Yugoslav states, it forms the geographical region of the Western Balkans . The country has 720 kilometers of land borders that separate the state in the north-west of Montenegro (173 km), in the north-east of Kosovo (114 km), in the east of North Macedonia (151 km) and in the south-east of Greece (282 km). The western border is formed by the Adriatic Sea in the north and the Ionian Sea in the south . The country's coastline is around 362 km.

The country has an area of ​​28,748 square kilometers, a little less than Belgium or Brandenburg . With a population of 2,800,138 (2011), the population density is 97.4 inhabitants per square kilometer.

Like the whole of the Mediterranean , Albania is located in a tectonically very active region. Severe earthquakes have occurred repeatedly, for example in 1967, 1979 ( earthquake in Montenegro 1979 ) and several times in 2019 ( earthquake on November 26, 2019 ).

physical geography

Spatial structure

Albania is mostly roughly divided into four regions: The Albanian Alps are located in the north of the country and comprise the area between Lake Skadar , Drin and Valbona . The central mountainous region (Krahina malore qendrore) includes all the mountains bordering south to the Greek border south of Erseka . A distinction is made between a northern and a southeastern part, the border of which runs at the height of Librazhd . The southern mountain region (Krahina malore jugore) comprises the mountainous south with the coast of the Ionian Sea, the valley of the Drino , the middle reaches of the Vjosa and the lower reaches of the Osum . The fourth large region is the coastal plain with the adjacent hill country.

Numerous sub-regions can be highlighted. In the northern part of the central highlands , these will include the mountains of Mirdita and Puka in the northwest, the south adjacent Mat -sink, the central mountain ranges of Lura chain east of it, the Korab Mountains respectively VARGU Lindor (Ostkette) on the border with Macedonia, the mountainous areas of Martanesh and Çermenika in the southeast. In the southeastern part of the Central Mountains , the Shkumbin Valley, the adjacent Mokra Mountains and the Valamara ( 2373  m above sea level ), the Korça plain with the upper reaches of the Devoll and, in the far south, the Kolonja region are worth mentioning. In the north of the southern mountains lies the Tomorr mountain range . The central part is occupied by the mountain ranges Trëbëshinj- Dhëmbel - Nemërçka and Shëndeli-Lunxherië-Bureto . To the west of it are the Kurvelesh region and the Ceraunic Mountains on the coast . The coastal areas are divided into the Mbishkodra plain on Lake Skadar , the Nënshkodra plain between the Drin and the coast, the Tirana plain , the karst hills of Dumreja , the Myzeqe plain and the Mallakastra hill country .

topography

Southern mountains with the highlands of Kolonja , Vjosa valley, Nemërçka mountain range, Lunxheri mountains, Drino valley and Mali i Gjerë (from the front)

Albania is characterized by hill country, mountains and high mountain ranges, which take up about two thirds of the country. Only along the Adriatic coast is an alluvial plain, which begins in the south at Vlora and in the north extends along the Skadar Lake to the Montenegrin border. In central Albania it expands to the great Myzeqe plain. The Adriatic coast is characterized by numerous lagoons and wetlands . The coast of the Ionian Sea, on the other hand, rises steeply to the high mountains of the Ceraunic Mountains .

A striking outskirts separates the coastal plain from the mountains to the east. It extends from the Montenegrin border in the north to the southern Albanian mountainous region. Its central part is the Skanderbeggebirge with the Dajti as the highest point of the Kruja chain. Most of Albania's mountain ranges and hills run in a north-northwest direction.

The Albanian Alps in the far north form the southernmost part of the Dinaric Mountains . These mountains are heavily karst and have deep gorges. In Dibra on the border with Macedonia is the highest mountain in the country, the Maja e Korabit with a height of 2764 meters. The second highest mountain is the Maja e Jezercës . It lies entirely in Albania and has an altitude of 2694 meters.

Waters

Shkopet reservoir and breakthrough of the Mat through the foothills
Map of the main rivers and river basins

The country has approximately 362 kilometers of coastline along the Adriatic and Ionian Seas .

The longest river is the Drin with a length of 282 kilometers. The Black Drin rises from Lake Ohrid and unites at Kukës with the White Drin from Kosovo . The inside flows into the buna ; a small backwater flows into the Adriatic at Lezha . The Shkumbin , Vjosa , Mat , Erzen and Seman rivers , which arise from the confluence of the Osum and Devoll , all flow into the Adriatic Sea. Almost all longer rivers have their source in the mountains and break through at least one mountain range in their course; the Lengarica tributary in an extremely narrow gorge . The only notable river that flows into the Ionian Sea is the Bistrica .

Virtually all of the country is drained into the Adriatic Sea and the Ionian Sea . Only the Vermosh area in the very north of the country belongs to the catchment area of ​​the Danube and drains into the Black Sea . And in the southeast, in the Devoll district , a small area is drained into the Aegean Sea via the Aliakmonas .

Albania has a large number of different types of lakes. The shallow and 368 square kilometer Lake Shkodra on the Montenegrin border is considered the largest lake on the Balkan Peninsula . The Lake Ohrid on the Macedonian border is very old and deep. The Great Prespa Lake in the border triangle with Greece and Macedonia has no above-ground outflow. The Small Prespa Lake - with 45 square kilometers the smallest of this list - is rather flat despite the mountains surrounding it. There are two larger lagoons in the coastal area, the Butrint Lake and the Karavasta lagoon . The Dumrea between Elbasan and Lushnja is particularly characterized by karst lakes . A large number of smaller glacial lakes are located in north-eastern Bania in the Lura National Park .

The Drin was dammed three times, creating the Fierza , Koman and Vau-Deja reservoirs . The Mat is also dammed twice ( Ulza reservoir , Liqen i Shkopetit ), two barrages were built on the Devoll in the 2010s . Many smaller rivers are also used to generate electricity.

During communist times, small reservoirs for irrigation were built across the country. There are some 600 reservoirs , the largest of which is the water storage Thana . In addition to irrigation, the Bovilla reservoir is primarily used to supply Tirana with drinking water. An extensive network of irrigation canals ensured agricultural yields despite the hot climate. On the other hand, the coastal plains , which were heavily swamped and contaminated with malaria before the Second World War, were systematically drained and drained in order to expand the arable land.

Population geography

Strong urban sprawl near Tirana. In the background coastal mountains with Dajti

The population is mainly concentrated on the coastal plain and some important valleys. Until the 1990s, the coastal plain was still mainly used for agriculture. Gradually, the cities expanded more and more into the surrounding area. A high level of urban sprawl can be seen in central Albania in particular . This is most evident in the Tirana - Durrës corridor , where the country's two largest cities merge into a single metropolitan area and at least a third of the country's population live. The city ​​of Kamza also belongs to the agglomeration of Tirana . Its population has increased sevenfold in the 20 years after the collapse of communism.

Other important settlement centers are the cities of Elbasan , Vlora , Shkodra , Korça , Fier , Berat , Lushnja , Kavaja and Pogradec .

The mountain areas and the hill country are less densely or hardly populated. Many of these peripheral areas are affected by heavy migration.

climate

The coast has a pronounced Mediterranean climate , which is characterized by mild and humid weather in winter and hot, dry weather in summer. Inland there is a continental climate with warm weather in summer and sometimes very cold, snowy winters.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
minimum temperature (° C) 2.0 2.0 5.0 8.0 12.0 16.0 17.0 17.0 14.0 10.0 8.0 5.0
maximum temperature (° C) 12.0 12.0 15.0 18.0 23.0 28.0 31.0 31.0 27.0 23.0 17.0 14.0
Humidity in% 71 69 68 69 70 62 57 57 64 67 75 73
Rainydays 13 13 14th 13 12 7th 5 4th 6th 9 16 17th
Sunshine (h / day) 4th 4th 5 7th 8th 10 12 11 9 7th 3 3

Most of the precipitation is measured in the Albanian Alps . In Boga it is over 3000 millimeters per year.

See also

Wikimedia Atlas: Geography of Albania  - geographical and historical maps

literature

  • Akademia e Shkencave e RPSSH : Gjeografia fizike e Shqipërisë , Tirana 1990.
  • Herbert Louis: Albania. A study of the country, primarily based on personal travels , published by J. Engelhorn's successors in Stuttgart, Berlin 1927.
  • Cay Lienau, Günter Prinzing: Albania - Contributions to Geography and History , Verlag Dr. Cay Lienau, Münster 1986, ISBN 3-9801245-0-9 .

Web links

Commons : Geography of Albania  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. welt-blick.de: Albania : Key figures
  2. Instat (Ed.): Censusi i popullsisë dhe banesave / Population and Housing Census 2011 . Results Kryesore / Main Results. Pjesa / Part 1. Tirana December 2011 ( online version (PDF; 6.0 MB) [accessed on April 13, 2019]).
  3. Cay Lienau: Geographical Basics . In: Klaus-Detlev Grothusen (Hrsg.): Albanien (=  Südosteuropa-Handbuch . Volume VII ). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1993, ISBN 3-525-36207-2 , pp. 3 ff .
  4. Numerous injured earthquakes in Albania. In: Earthquake News. September 21, 2019, accessed September 22, 2019 .
  5. Dhimitër Vogli: Fjalor enciklopedik shqiptar . Ed .: Akademia e Shkencave e RPSSH . Tirana 1985, Ujëmbledhësi i Thanës, Ujëmbledhësit, p. 1128 .