Geography Quiz: Landlocked Countries of the World

The coastal states of India, counted from the west coast round to the east, are Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal; Gujarat has the longest coastline among them.

A doubly landlocked country is one that is surrounded only by landlocked countries, so at least two international borders must be crossed to reach the sea.

Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world and by far the largest with no sea coast. Its shore on the Caspian does not change this, because the Caspian is the world's largest lake and has no natural connection with the ocean, so Kazakhstan is counted as landlocked.

Of the forty-four landlocked countries in the world, sixteen are in Africa, among them Chad, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi and Lesotho; the colonial boundaries drawn in the nineteenth century are the reason so many African states were left without a coast.

Bolivia and Paraguay are the only two landlocked states in South America. Paraguay has no coast but reaches the Atlantic along the Paraguay and Parana rivers, which carry most of its trade; Bolivia lost its Pacific coast to Chile in the War of the Pacific of 1879 to 1883.

Eritrea became independent of Ethiopia in 1993 after a long war and took with it the entire Red Sea coast, including the ports of Massawa and Assab, leaving Ethiopia landlocked; Ethiopia is today the most populous landlocked country in the world and routes most of its trade through Djibouti.

Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is the only state in South East Asia without a sea coast; it is bordered by China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar, and the Mekong, which forms much of its western boundary, is its chief waterway and source of hydroelectric power.

Lesotho lies wholly within South Africa and is one of only three countries in the world surrounded by a single neighbour, the other two being San Marino and Vatican City, both inside Italy.

The Vatican, about 0.44 square kilometres inside Rome, is both the smallest country in the world and the smallest landlocked country; it is the seat of the Pope and the smallest member of the family of sovereign states.

Bolivia, fighting alongside Peru, was defeated by Chile and lost the nitrate-rich Atacama coast, so that it has had no access to the Pacific since; the dispute still colours relations between the two countries, and Bolivia observes a Day of the Sea every year and keeps a naval force on…