The geography of

Vatican City Vatican City (), officially the Vatican City State ( it, Stato della Città del Vaticano; la, Status Civitatis Vaticanae),—' * german: Vatikanstadt, cf. '—' (in Austria: ') * pl, Miasto Watykańskie, cf. '—' * pt, Cidade do Vati ...

is unique due to the country's position as an urban, landlocked enclave of

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. With an area of 49 ha (121 acres, or 0.19 sq mi), and a border with Italy of 3.5km, it is the world's smallest independent state. Outside the Vatican City, thirteen buildings in Rome and Castel Gandolfo (the

pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

's summer residence) enjoy

extraterritorial In international law, extraterritoriality is the state of being exempted from the jurisdiction of local law, usually as the result of diplomatic negotiations. Historically, this primarily applied to individuals, as jurisdiction was usually cl ...

rights (one building, the

Paul VI Audience Hall The Paul VI Audience Hall ( it, Aula Paolo VI) also known as the Hall of the Pontifical Audiences is a building in Rome named for Pope with a seating capacity of 6,300, designed in reinforced concrete by the Italian architect Pier Luigi N ...

, straddles the border, but its Italian portion has extraterritorial rights). The country contains no major natural resources, and no known natural hazards other than those that affect Rome in general, such as

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

Climate

The city state has the same climate as Rome: temperate, mild, rainy winters (September to mid-May) with hot, dry summers (May to September).

Terrain

Vatican City sits on a low hill. The hill has been called the Vatican Hill (in Latin, ''Mons Vaticanus'') since long before

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

existed. An

Etruscan __NOTOC__ Etruscan may refer to: Ancient civilization *The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy *Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization **Etruscan architecture **Etruscan art **Etruscan cities ** Etrusca ...

settlement, possibly called ''Vatica'' or ''Vaticum'', may have existed in the area generally known by the

ancient Romans In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 ...

as "Vatican territory" ''(vaticanus ager''), but if so no archaeological trace of it has been discovered.

Extreme points

This is a list of the

extreme points In mathematics, an extreme point of a convex set S in a real or complex vector space is a point in S which does not lie in any open line segment joining two points of S. In linear programming problems, an extreme point is also called vertex ...

: the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location, as well as the highest and lowest points. * North: at the intersection of the ''Viale Vaticano'' and the ''Via Leone IV'' () * South: at the intersection of the ''Via della Stazione Vaticana'' and the ''Via di Porta Cavalleggeri'' () * West: at the intersection of the ''Viale Vaticano'' and the ''Via Aurelia'' () * East: easternmost edge of Saint Peter's Square () The lowest point in Vatican City is an unnamed location at . The highest point is another unnamed location at . The tallest building is

St. Peter's Basilica The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican ( it, Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica ( la, Basilica Sancti Petri), is a church built in the Renaissance style located in Vatican City, the papal e ...

, at 138 metres (453 ft).

Land use

The nature of the estate is fundamentally urban and none of the land is reserved for significant agriculture or other exploitation of natural resources. The city state displays an impressive degree of

land economy In economics, land comprises all naturally occurring resources as well as geographic land. Examples include particular geographical locations, mineral deposits, forests, fish stocks, atmospheric quality, geostationary orbits, and portions of th ...

, born of necessity due to its extremely limited territory. Thus, the urban development (i.e., buildings) is optimized to occupy about half of the total area, while the rest is reserved for open space, including the

Vatican Gardens The Gardens of Vatican City ( la, Horti Civitatis Vaticanae), also informally known as the Vatican Gardens ( it, Giardini Vaticani) in Vatican City, are private urban gardens and parks which cover more than half of the country, located in the ...

. The territory holds many diverse structures that help provide autonomy for the sovereign state, including a rail line and train station, heliport, post office, radio station (with extraterritorial antennas in Italy), military barracks, government palaces and offices, public plaza, part of an audience hall, old defensive wall marking the border, institutions of higher learning, and cultural/art centers.

Environment

In July 2007, the Vatican accepted an offer that would make it the only

carbon neutral Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the "p ...

state for the year, due to the donation of the

Vatican Climate Forest The Vatican Climate Forest, to be located in the Bükk National Park, Hungary, was donated to the Vatican City by a carbon offsetting company. The forest is to be sized to offset the carbon emissions generated by the Vatican during 2007.

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

. The forest was to be sized to offset the year's carbon dioxide emissions. No trees have been planted under the project and the carbon offsets have not materialized.

International agreements

*''Party to:'' Ozone Layer Protection *''Signed, but not ratified:'' Air Pollution, Environmental Modification

References

* ;Notes

External links

Interactive Vatican City Map
{{DEFAULTSORT:Geography Of Vatican City