Geography

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A rich & varied country

Geography buffs will find deep interest in the fascinating shields, cliffs, plateaus, plains and valleys of Romania!  Neatly divided into approximate thirds of mountains, hilly tablelands, and plains, Romania is the fourth largest nation in the EU. 

Stretching over 238,000 square kilometres, Romania is the 12th largest country in Europe and is located at the geographic centre.

Romania is located in the geographic centre of Europe, between 43° 37'07"-48°15'06" latitude North and 20°15'44"- 29°41'24" longitude East.

It neighbours to the East on the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, the Black Sea; to the South on Bulgaria; to the South and South-East on Yugoslavia; to the West on Hungary; and to the North on Ukraine.

 Mountains and Plateaus:

The main mountains are the Romanian Carpathians, rivalled only by the Alps as Europe's most extensive mountain system, which features three main groups:

• The Eastern Carpathians (from the northern border to Prahova Valley, shown in the inner and outer groups below) with the highest peak, Pietrosul (2303 m), in the Rodna Mountains
• The Southern Carpathians (from Prahova Valley to the Timis-Cerna-Bistra-Strei corridor) reaching the highest elevation in the Fagaras Mountains (Moldoveanu Peak-2543 m)
• The Western Carpathians (from the Danube Valley to the South to the Somes Valley to the North) with the highest elevation at the Cucurbata Peak (1848 m).

Features of the Carpathians

Moldoveanu Peak is the highest mountain in Romania, being located in the Făgăraş Mountains of the Southern Carpathians. The closest locality is Victoria on the North side. On the South side it is accessible from northwest of Câmpulung. 

The Carpathians begin on the Danube near Bratislava. They surround Transcarpathia and Transylvania in a large semicircle, sweeping towards the south-west, and end on the Danube near Orşova, in Romania.

The total length of the Carpathians is over 1,500 km. the mountain chain's width varies between 12 and 500 km.

The greatest width of the Carpathians corresponds with its highest altitudes. The system attains its greatest breadth in the Transylvanian plateau, and in the meridian of the Tatra group (the highest range, with Gerlachovský štít, at 2,655 m (8,705 feet) above sea level in Slovak territory).

It covers an area of 190,000 km˛, and, after the Alps, is the most extensive mountain system in Europe. The Carpathians at their highest altitude are only as high as the Middle Region of the Alps, with which they share a common appearance, climate, and flora.

 The Danube Divides

The Carpathians are separated from the Alps by the Danube. The two ranges meet only in one point: the Leitha Mountains at Bratislava. The river also separates them from the Stara Planina, or "Balkan Mountains", at Orşova, Romania.

The valley of the March and Oder separates the Carpathians from the Silesian and Moravian chains, which belong to the middle wing of the great Central Mountain System of Europe.

Unlike the other wings of the system, the Carpathians, which form the watershed between the northern seas and the Black Sea, are surrounded on all sides by plains, namely the Pannonian plain on the south-west, the plain of the Lower Danube (Romania) on the south, and the Galician plain on the north-east.

From Mike Ormsby's new must-read book 'NEVER MIND THE BALKANS, HERE'S ROMANIA!', with a laconic English perspective on life in Romania and the Romanian people Read More Here

In the Cindrel Mountains

We reached our destination at 6 p.m.  We are high in the hills of Transilvania, 25 km southwest of Sibiu.  The land undulates all around us in grey blue waves, like an ocean.  There is no sound except for birdsong on a breeze.    

I'm back in Transilvania: the heart of the nation, some say.  I gaze around me, trying to imagine the countless individuals who have trekked these hills over the millennia: warriors and shepherds, peasants and poets.  I feel warm, optimistic and completely knackered after a nine-hour hike in sun and rain. 

But I made it.  Along with my long-time buddy George, his wife Alina and little Catrinel, eight-years old and keen as mustard.  Then another surprise: the land suddenly dips at an angle of 45°.  It's hair-raising.   

Below us, at the bottom of the slope, sits a perfect post-glacial lake, like water in a saucer: Lacul Iezerul Mare.  It shimmers under the mid-morning sun.  Bushes protrude from the sheer rock above, like blotches of green paint daubed by a child.

The shepherd tramps away over a ridge and is swallowed by the land.  I watch his little black hat dip into the grass, like a submarine sinking into a green ocean.  He seems perfectly at ease in this wild and inhospitable spot, a son of the ancient soil.  I am suddenly struck by the difference between us.  Out here, he is at home and at work.  All he needs is a few dogs, a stick, and a cigarette.  The rest of us need offices and computers, cars and mobile phones.  

We settle under a sturdy tree, take off our boots and dump our rucksacks, breathing hard.  The sun is high and hot, but the wind keeps us cool.  We take our rest, watching the blue sky where white clouds drift, fat and fluffy. 

We eat goat's cheese, green peppers, olives and crusty bread.  The spring water in our bottle is still icy despite the midday heat.  Rolling blue-green hills stretch for endless miles in each direction, as far as we can see.  I feel lucky to be here.  It's almost too good to be true.

-- from the tale "People from Bucharest" and "Too Good to be True"

 

The Top 20 High Spots in Romania:

There is simply no valley, no mountain, no plain or plateau which does not feature a watercourse in Romania.  Every county has it's own river, and watercourse are integral parts of Romanian life. 

Romania's largest plain (the Bărăgan, or Wallachian Plain) supports the country’s the main agricultural zone, it's alluvial soils gently sloping south towards the Danube River .

The Danube Delta, located north of the Plateau of Dobrogea, is the most recent geographical feature in Romania. It has three main arms: Chillia, Sulina, and Sfântu Gheorghe through which the Danube flows into the Black Sea. The Danube Delta stretches on the Romanian territory over an area of 4340 sq km, of which 78% is subject to flooding.

A the mainstay of the drainage system, the Danube flows on Romanian territory along 1075 km (out of a total length of 2850 km).

Other major rivers: Mures (768 km), Olt (736 km), Prut (716 km), Sireţ (598 km), Ialomiţă (410 km), Somes (388 km), Argeş (344 km), Jiu (331 km), Buzau (324 km), and Bistrita (290 km).

There are 2,300 lakes scattered all over the country (plus 1150 ponds) taking 2620 sq km. The largest lakes: Razelm (415 sq km), Sinoe (171 sq km), Brates (21 sq km), Tasaul (20 sq km), Techirghiol (12 sq km), and Snagov (5.8 sq km).

 The Danube:  Romania's River

When storm clouds gather over the sweeping Wallachian plains and the rain starts to fall, every raindrop is headed towards the mighty Danube.

As catchment for 100% of Romania's rivers the Danube is indeed Romania's River.  Whilst some eastern rivers first flow into the Tisa river in what today is Hungary prior to meeting the Danube, all the rest, from the Olt to the Argeş to the Siret and Prut, flow to the Danube before it forms it's famous Danube Delta before emptying to the Black Sea. 

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Country Comparisons

It's always useful to get an idea of how big a country is compared with some places back home.  How far is it really from Bucharest to Braşov?  (Answer:  About like Sacramento to Reno or Sydney to Newcastle). 

Here are some helpful comparisons to give you an idea of how big the great nation of Romania acutally is!i

 Compared with USA

Romania has the same population as Texas, in an area the size of Oregon.   This puts its population density (people per square mile/km) about the same as California. 

The city area of Bucharest has 2.1 million people, which would rank it 4th amongst U.S. cities behind New York, Los Angeles and Chicago and just head of Houston (with 2.05 million).  Ranked by greater metropolitan areas, the Bucharest area is about the same size as the Tampa-St. Petersburg, Pittsburgh, Baltimore-Towson or St. Louis population centres.

Read about American-Romanian passports and visas here.

Compared with Canada

The Bucharest area is just a bit larger than the Vancouver metropolitan agglomeration at 2.5 million people (2005 estimate), and would rank third behind the Toronto and the Montreal areas. 

Barely two-thirds of the size of Newfoundland and Labrador, Romania also has about two-thirds of the population of all of Canada, with a much higher density of course.

Read about Canadian-Romanian passports and visas here.

Compared with UK

The area of the UK and Romania are both about 240,000km˛, although the UK is 3 times more crowded than Romania.   Romania's population is just twice that of London, and a third of the UK's 60 million.

Bucharest's metropolitan region is roughly the same size as the Greater Manchester area, although the club lounge at the airport is nowhere near as large.  Romanians do, at least, offer a tochitura type of stew which is as every bit as delicious as a Lancashire hotpot. 

Read about UK and Romanian passports and visas here.

Compared with Australia

Romania and Australia have been running neck-and-neck in the population stakes, with Romania slightly ahead now by a nose (perhaps one and a half million by the latest estimates).  In world rankings of population , Romania and Australia are 50th and 53rd respectively.

Victoria barely fits into Romania, being 95% the land size, although Victoria has less than a quarter of the population density of Romania.  Bucharest is larger than Brissie by a fair bit and right at 80% of the greater Melbourne area, and 70% the size of Sydney.

Read about Australian-Romanian passports and visas here.

Compared with New Zealand

Congratulations, you're probably reading the first population comparison of Kiwi versus Români.   But, you may not have guessed that New Zealand is bigger in size than Romania, by about 12%.

NZ has just 16% of the population density, with Auckland comprising about half the population of Bucharest and a third of the total population of New Zealand.   The two countries share a burning passion for oviculture. 

Read about New Zealand-Romanian passports and visas here.

Romanian Localities by Population

(figures do not include metropolitan area estimates, 2006 Projected)

Almost as if communist-era planning is still eerily in force, the top 10 cities in population size are very evenly distributed across the country. 

Bucharest is the massive elephant in the lounge room, with a metropolitan size equal to Houston, followed by Iaşi, the Moldovan capital.

Rounding out the top five are Timişoara, Cluj-Napoca, Constanţa and Galaţi. 

Map:  The top 25 cities in Romania by population, using proportional dots showing relative sizes

HISTORICAL MAPS

Population of U.S. Cities

Postal Codes for Romania