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Romania
Romania ? General Info
Romania Geographical Position in Europe:
State situated in SE Central Europe, north of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube and bordering on the Black Sea. Romania lies between 43?37'07" and 48?15'06" Latitude North and 20?15'44" and 29?41'24" Longitude East. Parallel 45 (midway between the Equator and the North Pole) crosses Romania 70 km north of its capital and meridian 25 Longitude East (midway between the Atlantic coast and the Urals) runs 90 km west of Bucharest. Romania borders to the east and north on the Republic of Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, to the west on Hungary, to the southwest on Yugoslavia, to the south on Bulgaria) and to the southeast on the Black Sea. Two thirds of the frontiers follow the courses of rivers (the Danube, the Prut, the Tisa) and the seashore (the Black Sea) and one third is traced on the land.
Relief:
Nature has been particularly generous with the land of Romania, a country whose relief is not only varied but also harmoniously distributed. There are three major, well-differentiated relief steps: the highest is represented by the Carpathian Mountains, the middle by the Sub-Carpathians, the hills and the tablelands, and the low one by the plains, the river meadows and the Danube Delta. The main characteristic feature of the relief components is their proportional distribution, in the form of an amphitheatre. The mountains trenching in the shape of an arch in the central part cover 31% of the country's area, the hills and the tablelands which descend from them occupy 36%, and the plains, extending towards the southern and western borders, take up 33%. Encircling like a crown the Transylvanian Tableland (400-600 m altitude), the Carpathian Moldoveanu Peak in the Fagaras Massif - 2,544 m), being in their turn surrounded by a belt of hills and elevations which rise no higher than 1,00 m.
Climate:
Romania has a temperate-continental climate of transitional type, specific to Central Europe, with four clearly defined seasons. Local differences are caused by altitude and by slight oceanic (to the west), Mediterranean (to the south-west) and continental (to the east) influences. In winter time the mean temperature falls below - 3?C and in summertime it ranges between 22?C and 24?C. The mean annual temperatures is 11?C in the south of the country and 8?C in the north of the country. The absolute minimum temperature registered was - 38.5?C at Bod in the Brasov Depression, and the absolute maximum temperature was + 44.5?C (at Ion Sion in the Baragan Plain).
Capital:
Bucharest municipality (divided into 6 administrative districts) with a population of 2,032,000 (1998). Situated in the south of the country, in the Romanian Plain (alt 85 m), the city dates from the 14th century and is recorded in writing for the first time in 1459 as residence of Prince Vlad Tepes. Capital of Walachia in the 17th-19th centuries, then of Romania since 1862.
Airports and ports:
Airports: The main international airport is Bucharest-Otopeni (opened in 1970), located 18 km from the central part of Bucharest (it took over the external flights from the oldest civilian airport in the town: Bucharest-Baneasa). 15 towns have airports: Constanta - Mihail Kogalniceanu, Timisoara, Arad, Sibiu, Suceava (all for interntional traffic as well), Bacau, Baia Mare, Caransebes, Cluj-Napoca, Craiova, Iasi, Oradea, Satu Mare, Tⲧu Mures, Tulcea.
Ports: The largest port of Romania and also the largest Black Sea port with a traffic of over 80 million tons per year but which can also receive ships up to 150,000 dwt is Constanta (raised on the site of the ancient Greek colony of Tomis, which was founded in the sixth century BC). Other ports on the Black Sea are: Mangalia (the ancient Greek colony of Callatis, founded in the sixth century BC) and Sulina (which flourished in the tenth - 14th centuries as a Byzantine and later on, a Genoese city). The main ports on the Danube, most of them active since Roman antiquity, are Orsova, Drobeta-Turnu Severin, Turnu Magurele, Giurgiu, Oltenita, Calaras, Cernavoda. Three ports - Braila, Galati and Tulcea - are both river and sea ports and can receive also sea-going ships of up to 7,500 dwt and a draught of 7 m.
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