Geography of Barbados

GEOGRAPHY OF BARBADOS

Barbados is the most windward, or eastern of all the Caribbean islands. It’s the only island of the Caribbean that lies before the sixty-degree lateral line. Pedro a Campus, who arrived there in 1536, first discovered it. Pedro a Campus was sailing for Portugal at the time of his discovery. Upon his arrival he concluded that the island was uninhabited. The island remained this way until it was settled by the English in the later Seventeenth Century.

The shape of the island, is somewhat of an irregular triangle. The circumference

Of the island is approximately fifty-five miles around, with a length of twenty-one miles and a width of thirteen miles. Its size is approximately two and a half times the size of Washington D. C. Coral Reefs line almost the entire coast of the island, and at some points, are up to three miles seaward. This creates problems with navigating to and from the island.

The northeastern portion of the island contains heights of 1000 feet, while the southeastern part has sandy beaches which are protected by the coral reefs. The highest elevation is Mount Hillaby, which is 1147 feet above sea level at the center portion of the country. The rest of the island is relatively flat, but elevates as it rises to the Central Highlands.

Scotland River is the principal river which runs through the island. Other rivers include Joe’s River and the Indian River, along with a handful of natural springs, mainly Haggat’s.

The island has a tropical climate and it rarely falls below seventy degrees Fahrenheit. The months of June to October are generally considered the “rainy” season. The island only occasionally suffers from the wrath of hurricanes. Another natural disaster that the people of the island encounter is periodic landslides.