ABSTRACT
Panama is bordered on the west by Costa Rica, and on the East by Colombia; its coastline is 2,490 km by the Caribbean Sea to the north and by the Pacific Ocean to the south. Panama is slightly smaller than South Carolina, its lowest point is the Pacific Ocean, and the highest point is Volcan de Chiriquí. The French originally attempted to dig a canal across the isthmus in the 19th century, but failed to conquer the female Anopheles mosquito, the carrier of Malaria. After the United States purchased the rights from the French, the Americans conquered both the Anopheles mosquito. In 1946 aerial photography began to be used for Panamanian mapping; a 1:20,000 scale map of the Canal Zone was made by the Army Map Service. One of the major reasons for such sparse and patchy cartographic coverage in such a relatively small country was the almost continuous cloud cover, which for 20 years precluded obtaining satisfactory aerial photography.
