ABSTRACT
Bosnia and Herzegovina is a small country with a total population of 3.8 million in 2004. It has a land area of 51,129 square kilometres, which is about a tenth of the size of France or just over a fifth of the size of the United Kingdom and former Yugoslavia. About 70 per cent of the total land area is mountains or other high ground, most of which is forested, and only 13.6 per cent is arable. The high Dinaric Alps, which dominate the terrain, made internal communications difficult until the construction of modern roads and railways in the later twentieth century. The country is on average 693 metres above sea level.
