Geography of Uruguay
Overview of the geography of Uruguay
Uruguay is a country in the southeastern region of South America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean, between Argentina and Brazil. It is located in the Southern Hemisphere on the Atlantic seaboard of South America between 53 and 58 west longitude and 30 and 35 south latitude. It is bordered to the west by Argentina, on the north and northeast by Brazil, and on the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean, which makes up Uruguay's coast.
To the south, it fronts the Río de la Plata, a broad estuary that opens out into the South Atlantic. Montevideo, the capital and major port, sits on the banks of the Río de la Plata and is on approximately the same latitude as Cape Town and Sydney. Uruguay is the smallest Spanish-speaking nation in South America with a land area of 175,015 km2 (67,574 sq mi) and a water area of 1,200 km2 (463 sq mi). It has an Exclusive Economic Zone of 142,166 km2 (54,891 mi2). It is the only country in South America situated completely south of the Tropic of Capricorn, as well as one of only four such in the world.
Topography and hydrography
Most of Uruguay is a rolling plain that represents a transition from the almost featureless Argentine pampas to the hilly uplands of southern Brazil. The country itself has flat plains on its eastern, southern, and western edges.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2334391. Authority coordinates are -33.000, -56.000. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Geography of Uruguay” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.