The relief
Honduras, like its two neighbors Nicaragua and El Salvador, is a mountainous country, with relief at the junction between the northern Sierras Madres and the Andes. It is the most mountainous country in Central America, with two-thirds of its territory more than 300 metres above sea level. The country's highest mountain is Celaque, at 2,870 metres.
What's more, the country is very close to the edge of a tectonic plate, so earthquakes and volcanic activity are frequent. The central mountains form a plateau dominated by ranges that extend in all directions. The highest altitudes are found in the west of the country, stretching from the border with Guatemala and El Salvador to the central valley. In the east, they extend from the Central Valley to the Nicaraguan border. The Central Valley is a wide depression linking the Caribbean to the Pacific, with an average altitude of around 800 meters. This valley and the eastern and western mountain ranges are cut by deep, straight river valleys. The Caribbean coastal plain stretches from the Guatemalan border to the Nicaraguan border. It is a broad alluvial plain that penetrates well inland thanks to the rivers that flow into the Caribbean. The widest part is the Mosquitia, or Mosquito Coast, rich in marshes and lakes. This region is easily flooded. The Gulf of Fonseca plain is very small. It's also an alluvial plain, but not very well developed.
Honduras does have volcanoes, but most of them are extinct, meaning that they have been inactive for so many years that they are unlikely to erupt.Isla del Tigre, in the Gulf of Fonseca, is considered the most representative volcano in Honduras. It rises to an altitude of 783 m and has had two violent eruptions, the last one around 2,000 years ago.
Lakes and rivers
Honduras' hydrographic network is divided into two parts: the Caribbean side (Atlantic Ocean) and the Pacific side, and is characterized by rivers that run in a straight line from the mountains to the coast, on both the Caribbean and Pacific sides. The most important rivers are the Patuca (320 km) and the Coco or Segovia, on the Nicaraguan border, which flow into the Caribbean, and the Choluteca (349 km), the longest river, which flows into the Pacific. Small lakes and lagoons abound throughout the country. Lake Yojoa or Taulabé, of great natural beauty, is the largest lake at 90 km2 and the only volcanic lake in Honduras. It is the country's largest freshwater reserve. Between the deltas of the Coco and Patuca rivers lies the Caratasca lagoon.
