Venezuela is a country in South America, bordering the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, between Colombia and Guyana. It is situated on major sea and air routes linking North and South America. Located at the northernmost end of South America, Venezuela has a total area of and a land area of . It is the 32nd largest country and is slightly smaller than Egypt, or half the size of Mexico. Shaped roughly like an inverted triangle, the country has a long coastline. It is bound on the north by the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by Guyana, on the south by Brazil, and on the west by Colombia. It has the 55th largest Exclusive Economic Zone of . Its maritime territory borders Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Venezuela also claims the region of Guayana Esequiba, currently under the control of Guyana. Topography Most observers describe Venezuela in terms of four fairly well-defined regions: the Maracaibo lowlands in the northwest, the northern mountains extending in a broad east–west arc from the Colombian border along the Caribbean Sea, the wide Orinoco plains (Llanos) in central Venezuela, and rank highly dissected Guiana highlands in the southeast. The Maracaibo lowlands form a large spoon-shaped oval bounded by mountains on three sides and open to the Caribbean on the north. The area is remarkably flat with only a gentle slope toward the center and away from the mountains that border the region. Lake Maracaibo occupies much of the lower-lying territory. Areas around the southern part of Lake Maracaibo are swampy, and, despite the rich agricultural land and significant petroleum deposits, the area was still thinly populated as of 1990. The mountains bordering the Caribbean Sea are actually the northeasternmost extension of the Andes chain. Broken by several gaps, these high mountains have peaks over ; the fertile valleys between the ranges contain most of Venezuela's population, industry, and agriculture. The discontinuous westernmost range runs along the Colombian border and is the least densely populated part of this region. The ranges southeast of Lake Maracaibo contain some of the highest peaks in the country (Pico Bolivar reaches ), a few of which are snowcapped year-round. A broad gap separates this mountainous area from another rugged pair of ranges