Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
British Columbia is Canada's third-largest province, behind Ontario and Quebec. Covering
948,596 square kilometers (366,252 square miles), it's four times larger than Great Britain,
two and a half times as large as Japan, larger than all U.S. states except Alaska, and larger
than California, Oregon, and Washington combined. The province is long north to south,
relatively narrow east to west, and lies between the 49th and 60th parallels. Its largest city,
Vancouver, is on the same latitude as Paris and the same longitude as San Francisco. To the
south are the U.S. states of Washington, Idaho, and Montana; to the west, the Pacific Ocean
and the narrow panhandle of southeastern Alaska. To the north are Canada's Yukon Territ-
ory; to the east, across the Continental Divide, lies the Canadian province of Alberta. The
land within those borders is dominated by mountain ranges, which trend northwest-south-
east and are highest in the south.
Mountains dominate British Columbia; half of its land area lies more than 1,000 meters
(3,300 feet) above sea level. The province occupies part of the mountainous terrain that runs
down the entire western margin of the Americas. It lies mainly in the Cordilleran Region,
which is composed of Precambrian to Cenozoic rock formed into mountain ranges, deep
intermountain troughs, and wide plateaus.
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