Located in the Caucasus region in West Asia. It is bounded by Turkey to the west, by Georgia to the north, by Azerbaijan to the east and by Iran to the south. It is an area of mountainous highlands, and the average altitude is 1,800 metres above sea level.
Although it is landlocked it has a number of lakes, the largest being Lake Sevan. The vegetation in the highest areas is abundant, differing from that of the northeast and southeast, where only beech and oak forests grow.
As a nation with few resources, its main advantage is its highly specialised labour (more than 40% of the population is employed in industry and construction). The economy is dominated by mining, (of gold, copper, zinc and silver), machine manufacturing and synthetic rubber production.
