Guinea Regions

Guinea is the water tower of West Africa. The Niger, the Senegal and the Gambia all rise in its highlands, and a photo taken there is as likely to show red laterite road, a river valley or a hillside of mango trees as a town. The region is the first tier of the country, and there are only eight pieces to learn.

The quiz: Name to place, on the map
Grouped by: The four natural regions, with Conakry on its own
In the game: 8 regions

Start

What you are looking at

The seven administrative regions of Guinea and the capital, Conakry, which has the status of a special zone and is drawn as a piece of its own. Six of the regions are named for their main town: Boké, Kindia, Labé, Mamou, Faranah and Kankan. The seventh is Nzérékoré, in the south-east corner.

Guineans also talk about the country as four natural regions, and the quiz groups the regions that way. Lower Guinea is the coast, Middle Guinea is the Fouta Djallon plateau, Upper Guinea is the savanna of the east, and Forest Guinea is the wet south-east around the Liberian and Ivorian borders. They are not an administrative tier, so the groups are a way to drill the map a piece at a time. The regions are the Guinea Prefectures grouped, so the borders of the two maps match exactly.

Conakry sits at the end of a narrow peninsula on the Atlantic, and is far smaller than any of the others, so it has a tap area of its own.

How to place one

Start with Conakry. The capital is the tiny piece on the coast, with the Kindia region wrapping round it.
Take the coast as two. Boké is the north-western region, on the border with Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, and Kindia is the one below it, down to Sierra Leone.
Find the plateau. Labé is the northern region of the highlands, and Mamou is the small one below it, in the middle of the country.
Read the east as two. Kankan is the largest region by far and fills the north-east on the Malian border. Faranah is the one beneath it, and Nzérékoré is the corner that reaches Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire.

Every region, by group

Lower Guinea2 regions: Boké, Kindia
Middle Guinea2 regions: Labé, Mamou
Upper Guinea2 regions: Faranah, Kankan
Forest Guinea1 region: Nzérékoré
Conakry1 region: Conakry

Worked examples

Conakry

The one that is a city

The capital has a status of its own and is far smaller than any of the regions. It is a small piece on the coast, and on a phone it needs a careful tap.

Kankan

The big one

Kankan is about twice the size of any other region and fills the north-east of the country, so it is the easiest to place and the one that makes the others look small.

Labé

The heart of the highlands

Labé is the centre of the Fouta Djallon, the plateau where the Senegal and the Gambia begin their journey to the sea.

Frequently asked questions

How many regions does Guinea have?

Seven, and the special zone of Conakry, which has the same rank and is its own piece on the map.

What are the four natural regions?

Lower Guinea on the coast, Middle Guinea on the Fouta Djallon plateau, Upper Guinea in the east and Forest Guinea in the south-east. The quiz groups the regions that way, and Conakry stands apart.

The tier below this one is Guinea Prefectures. For another country at this level, see Senegal Regions.

Sources

geoBoundaries, Guinea ADM2, the boundaries; the regions are the prefectures dissolved
geoBoundaries, Guinea ADM1, which region each prefecture lies in
Regions of Guinea, the seven regions and the special zone

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