Bahamas: Physical Geography

The Bahamas is a sprawling archipelago in the western Atlantic Ocean, lying southeast of Florida and north of Cuba and Hispaniola as part of the wider Lucayan Archipelago. The nation stretches roughly 800 kilometers from northwest to southeast and includes about 700 islands together with thousands of smaller cays, of which only around 30 are inhabited. Despite this scale, total land area is modest, around 10,000 square kilometers, since the islands are scattered across a far larger expanse of shallow ocean.

Geologically, the islands are built almost entirely of coral and marine limestone, accumulated over millions of years atop broad submarine platforms known as the Great Bahama Bank and the Little Bahama Bank. This origin gives the terrain its defining character: low, flat, and rarely rising more than a few meters above sea level. Ridges across the islands typically reach no higher than about 15 to 20 meters, and the country's highest point, Mount Alvernia on Cat Island, stands at only about 64 meters.

The largest island, Andros, lies southwest of the capital, Nassau, which sits on the smaller island of New Providence. Other major islands include Grand Bahama, Eleuthera, Exuma, and Great Abaco. The limestone bedrock has produced extensive karst features, including underground caves and sinkholes, along with a near-total absence of rivers or year-round freshwater streams, so rainwater instead collects in natural underground channels across the islands.