Geography

Kuwait is situated in Southwest Asia, bordering the Persian Gulf, between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. It is a small state of about 17,818 square kilometres, a little smaller than Wales. At its most distant points, it is about 200 kilometres north to south and 170 kilometres east to west. Kuwait consists mostly of desert and little difference in altitude.

The bulk of the population lives in the coastal capital of the city of Kuwait. Smaller populations inhabit the nearby city of Al Jahrah, smaller desert and coastal towns, and, prior to the Persian Gulf War, some of the several nearby Persian Gulf islands, notably Faylakah.

Boundaries

Shaped roughly like a triangle, Kuwait borders the Persian Gulf to the east, with 195 kilometres of coast. Kuwait's most prominent geographic feature is Kuwait Bay, which indents the shoreline for about forty kilometres, providing natural protection for the port of Kuwait and accounting for nearly one-half the state's shoreline.

To the south and west, Kuwait shares a long border of 250 kilometres with Saudi Arabia. The boundary between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia was set by the Treaty of Al Uqayr in 1922, which also established the Kuwait-Saudi Arabia neutral zone of 5,700 square kilometres. In 1966, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia agreed to divide the Neutral Zone; the partitioning agreement making each country responsible for administration in its portion was signed in December 1969. The resources in the area, since known as the Divided Zone, are not affected by the agreement, and the oil from onshore and offshore fields continues to be shared equally between the two countries.

The third side of the triangle is the 240 kilometres of historically contested border to the north and west that Kuwait shares with Iraq. Although the Iraqi government, which had first asserted a claim to rule Kuwait in 1938, recognised the borders with Kuwait in 1963 (based on agreements made earlier in the century), it continued to press Kuwait for control over Bubiyan and Warbah islands through the 1960s and 1970s. In August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait and, shortly thereafter, formally incorporated the entire country into Iraq. Under United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 687, after the restoration of Kuwaiti sovereignty in 1991, a UN commission undertook formal demarcation of the borders on the basis of those agreed to in 1963. The boundary was demarcated in 1992, but Iraq refuses to accept the commission's findings.

Islands

Kuwait includes within its territory nine Persian Gulf islands, two of which, Bubiyan (the largest) and Warbah, are largely uninhabited but strategically important. Bubiyan is linked to the mainland by a concrete bridge, and following Kuwait's liberation in 1991, the island was converted to a military base from which civilians are barred. The island of Faylakah, at the mouth of Kuwait Bay, is densely inhabited. It is believed to be the outermost point of the ancient civilization of Dilmun, which was centred in what is present-day Bahrain. Faylakah is the site of an ancient Greek temple built by the forces of Alexander the Great.

The islands are as follows:

• Auhah Island
• Bubiyan Island
• Failaka Island
• Kubbar Island
• Miskan Island
• Qaruh Island
• Umm al Maradim Island
• Umm an Namil Island
• Warbah Island

Geology

The land that makes up Kuwait was formed in a recent geologic era. In the south, limestone rises in a long, north-oriented dome that lies beneath the surface. It is within and below this formation that the principal oil fields, Kuwait's most important natural resource, are located.

In the west and north, layers of sand, gravel, silt and clay overlie the limestone to a depth of more than 210 metres. The upper portions of these beds are part of a mass of sediment deposited by a great wadi whose most recent channel was the Wadi al Batin, the broad shallow valley forming the western boundary of the country.

On the western side of Ar Rawdatayn geological formation, a freshwater aquifer was discovered in 1960 and became Kuwait's principal water source. The supply is insufficient to support extensive irrigation, but it is tapped to supplement the distilled water supply that fills most of the country's needs. The only other exploited aquifer lies in the permeable zone in the top of the limestone of the Ash Shuaybah field south and east of the city of Kuwait. Unlike water from the Ar Rawdatayn aquifer, water from the Ash Shuaybah aquifer is brackish. Millions of litres a day of this water are produced for commercial and household purposes.