Albania
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (Retd.) |
Albania (officially the Republic of Albania) (Albanian: Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in South-eastern Europe. The country spans 28,748 square kilometres (11,100 square miles) and had a total population of 3 million people as of 2016. It is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic with the capital in Tirana, the country's most populous city and main economic and commercial centre. The country's other major cities include Durrës, Vlorë, Sarandë, Shkodër, Berat, Korçë, Gjirokastër and Fier.
Variants
Location
Albania lies in the southwestern portion of the Balkan Peninsula bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east, and Greece to the south and southeast. Most of the country is mountainous, including the Albanian Alps in the north, the Korab Mountains in the east, the Ceraunian Mountains in the south and the Skanderbeg Mountains in the center. The country's coast touches the Adriatic Sea to the northwest and the Ionian Sea to the southwest including the Albanian Riviera. It is less than 72 km (45 mi) from Italy across the Strait of Otranto that connects the Adriatic to the Ionian.
Birthplace of Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa, the Nobel Prize winner, was born in Albania. She spent most of her life in Calcutta, India, where she established the Missionaries of Charities trust.
Mention by Pliny
Pliny[1] mentions Albania, Iberia, and The Adjoining Nations....The whole plain which extends away from the river Cyrus is inhabited by the nation of the Albani1, and, after them,2 by that of the Iberi3, who are separated from them by the river Alazon4, which flows into the Cyrus from the Caucasian chain.
1 According to Strabo, Albania was bounded on the east by the Caspian, and on the north by the Caucasus. On the west it joined Iberia, while on the south it was divided from the Greater Armenia by the river Cyrus. By later writers, the northern and western boundaries are differently given. It was found to be the fact that the Albani occupied the country on both sides of the Caucasus, and accordingly Pliny, in c. 15, carries the country further north, as far as the river Casius, while in this Chapter he makes the river Alazon, the modern Alasan, the western boundary towards Iberia. To the west of Albania.
2 To the west of Albania
3 Iberia lay south of the great chain of the Caucasus, forming an extensive tract bounded on the west by Colchis, on the east by Albania, and on the south by Armenia, and watered by the river Cyrus. It corresponded very nearly with modern Georgia.
4 The modern Alasan.