Forests, fields and hills
With a surface area of 238,391 km², Romania is about half the size of mainland France. It is evenly divided between plains (31% of the territory), hills (39%) and mountains (30%). The plains are almost entirely cultivated. Forests have all but disappeared: they occupy 27% of the territory and are located mainly in mountainous areas. Meadows are concentrated in the hollows of the Carpathians, in the hills of Transylvania and in Moldavia.
Crossed by the 45th parallel, the median line between the pole and the equator, the country has 2,508 km of shared borders with Hungary (443 km), Ukraine (531 km), the Republic of Moldavia (450 km), Bulgaria (608 km) and Serbia (476 km).
The Carpathian foothills
The emblematic Carpathians, which cross the country, cover around 30% of the territory, forming a large amphitheatre at its center. With an average altitude of 845 m, they stretch for 910 km. Far from forming an impassable barrier, they are pierced by wide valleys, twelve railroad lines and some thirty roads, including the mythical Transfăgărașan.
The range can be divided into three major subsets. The Eastern Carpathians are made up of magnificent, very green, wooded landscapes with relatively gentle slopes. Bucovina and Maramureș nestle at its feet. There are also more rugged mountains, such as the Ceahlău massif, nicknamed Romania's Olympus. The southern Carpathians, with their stony peaks and glacial lakes, form the highest part of the range. In the Făgăraș mountains in particular, many peaks exceed 2,000 m. The highest point is Mount Moldoveanu (2,544 m).
The Western Carpathians are less high - they don't exceed 1,900 m - but more inhabited, right up to its heights. Made up of spectacular karst reliefs and deep valleys, they are renowned for their many caves, such as the Bear Cave or the Scărișoara Cave, home to an underground glacier. The most emblematic mountains are the Apuseni, picturesque and highly preserved.
The various massifs that make up the Romanian Carpathians (Retezat, Fagărăș, Bucegi, Ceahlău, Apuseni...) thus offer a wide variety of landscapes: karst plateaus, rocky peaks, rounded summits, alpine lakes, gorges (particularly those of Bicaz and Turda, the most impressive), steep valleys and so on. The foothills of this mountain range are covered by vast expanses of hills, mainly in Transylvania, but also in Moldavia to the east and Wallachia to the south.
Fertile plains
The plains - former sea and lake beds now covered with loess, extremely fertile silty soils - are the real breadbaskets of the country. Until the mid-twentieth century, they were vast areas of fat, wild steppe. Today, however, almost the entire surface is farmed, and the steppe vegetation has almost disappeared. There are two main plains units: the Câmpia Română, which stretches along the left bank of the Danube in the south of the country, covers most of Oltenia and Muntenia; and the Câmpia Banat-Crișana in western Romania, between the Western Carpathians and the Hungarian border.
Dobrogea, a region apart
Sandwiched between the Danube and the Black Sea, Dobrogea is special in more ways than one. The Danube delta, Europe's youngest territory, rubs shoulders with the country's, and indeed the continent's, oldest mountain range: the venerable Măcin Mountains, which rise to 467 m.
The delta was created around 10,000 years ago when sediments carried by the river met sandy strands from the Black Sea, which formed lagoons. Blocked in their progression, the sediments accumulated until they filled the lagoons, while the river carved out several tortuous paths - divided into three main branches - to the sea. This vast wetland, largely polderized under Communism, continues to advance towards the Black Sea as the Danube deposits its alluvial deposits.
The Black Sea coastline, some 240 km long and made up of long beaches interspersed with small cliffs, is largely built on concrete. Several narrow strips of sand have formed lagoons, such as those at Razim, Sinoe and Golovița. The famous resort of Mamaia is built on one of these narrow strips, as is the wilder Gura Portiței.
Dobrogea also contains Europe's only arid steppe, the western tip of the Eurasian steppe, which originates in Mongolia! These vast treeless expanses, now widely cultivated, undulate endlessly, forming landscapes of moving barrenness. Only the Măcin Mountains still harbor the flora and fauna typical of this type of steppe.
The footprint of the Danube
The number of streams and rivers is estimated at over 4,000, including the famous Danube, which travels 1,075 km through Romania before emptying into the Black Sea, forming a sumptuous delta. Along the way, it creates Europe's longest defile (144 km), east of Drobeta-Turnu Severin. Almost 96% of Romania's territory is drained by the Danube and its tributaries. Most have their source in the Carpathian Mountains before flowing into the river. Among the most important rivers are the Prut (740 km), the Mureș (761 km), the Olt (615 km), the Siret (560 km), the Argeș (345 km), the Jiu (330 km) and the Buzău (302 km). The power of the Danube is an important source of energy for Romania and its neighbors, who have built hydroelectric power stations, the most important of which is the Iron Gates I dam. Other rivers are also exploited.
The country boasts 3,500 lakes, 2,000 of them natural. The largest are the Razim lagoons and its neighbors Golvița and Zmeica. The largest mountain lake is Bicaz (33 km²), created by a dam.
And let's not forget the countless mineral springs. There are springs in 500 localities throughout the country. They have a wide variety of properties, and are bottled for consumption or used for cures. The hottest reaches 80°C.
