GEOGRAPHY OF JAMAICA The islands of the Caribbean look like stepping stones stretching in an arc from the western end of Venezuela in South America to the peninsula of Florida in North America. The Caribbean islands are divided into two groups: The Greater Antilles: Forming the northern part of the arc are four large islands, Cuba, Hispaniola (made up of Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Jamaica and Puerto Rico.
The Lesser Antilles: The eastern end of the arc consists of the smaller islands which together form the Lesser Antilles. These include the West Indian islands of St. Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla, Antigua, Montserrat (this group is called the Leeward Islands), Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Dominica (This group is called the Windward Islands), Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe. The islands vary widely in size, ranging from Cuba and Hispaniola, by far the largest, to the tiny islands of the Grenadines. Those which have English as their official language and are members of the Commonwealth are usually referred to as the West Indies. The body of water bounded by these islands and the northern coast of South America is the Caribbean Sea Almost at the centre of the Caribbean Sea, Jamaica lies 150 kilometres (90 miles) south of Cuba and 160 kilometres (100 miles) west of Haiti, the two nearest countries. The closest point to Jamaica in South America is Cartagena in Colombia, a distance of 710 kilometres (445 miles) almost due south The latitude and longitude of the capital, Kingston, are about 18 degrees N and 78 degrees W. | |
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