The Gulf of Guinea washes Africa from the northwestern part of the Guinean coast, where Cape Palmas is located, and the southeastern part, where Cape Palmeirinhas is located on the territory of Angola. At the same time, it has no boundaries on the water surface as such.
Description
It so happened that in this section of the World Ocean the line of Ecuador intersects with the prime meridian. Thus, the countdown of all geographical landmarks on our planet originates from here.
The territory of the Gulf of Guinea, covering an area of 1533 thousand square kilometers, is divided into two smaller gulfs called Biafra and Benin.
Water temperature
Due to the fact that the Gulf of Guinea is located in a bend of the coastline on both sides of the equator, the temperature in its waters does not fall below +25°C, and this, in turn, makes it a truly tropical reservoir.
Among other things, several large rivers carry their waters here at once, and the bottom of the bay has underwater canyons and even seamounts. The beautiful seascape at its bottom appeared precisely thanks to the work of powerful river flows.
On its territory, the Gulf of Guinea has a large number of islands - both small and rather large, magnificent in appearance: the land of the mainland and the islands, washed by the waves of the Gulf, is beautiful and bizarre. Here you can see capes and bays, the coast is mostly gentle, sandy and only in some places rocky.
Like any warm body of water, the Gulf of Guinea, the special climatic conditions on its shores and warm currents have created excellent conditions for the prosperity of various representatives of the animal and plant world.
More than one hundred and fifty valuable species of trees grow in the forests of this land, for example, olive and coconut palms, iron and breadfruit.
In the water - brown and red algae, sometimes forming quite large clusters, phytoplankton and jellyfish. But their number is very small, if we talk about the fauna of the bay. It is worth noting that its depth reaches 6363 meters, so representatives of the fauna occupied almost every mark, changing types and forms according to the conditions in which their life activity takes place.
In the coastal zone there are a large number of mollusks, crabs, shrimps, crustaceans, lobsters, starfish, snakes and worms, as well as tropical fish, including flying ones. Representatives of large fish live a little deeper, especially a lot of dolphins, stingrays and sharks, who are attracted by the opportunity to hunt tuna - a welcome treat for all predators. Away from this circlethe bay is visited by giant whales - sperm whales.
For a visitor, the climate is very unusual. Although the temperature during the day reaches relatively low figures, the humidity is about 80% daily, which, together, creates an unbearable stuffiness and fertile ground for the existence of malarial mosquitoes. But the undoubted advantage is that the fertile lands are regularly irrigated, so several centuries ago, the first coffee and cocoa plantations appeared on the Guinean coast, which are still developing.
The living conditions of the local population also leave much to be desired: tap water is undrinkable due to the high probability of contracting hepatitis A, typhoid fever or yellow fever. The roads are broken and almost unpaved, the transport infrastructure is very weak, and the air transport is too unreliable to be able to carry out long-haul flights and establish a regular passenger flow.
Deposits
In 1984, oil fields were discovered in the waters of the bay, and later an entire oil and gas basin was taken into development, where several states, including energy companies of the Russian Federation, simultaneously produce oil on a permanent basis.
Famous bay depicted on coins
Probably few people remember, but the view of the Gulf of Guinea was also captured on metal coins of the Soviet Union of various denominations. More precisely, they minted on the back of the coin a whole picture, including the globe with the continents, illuminated by the sun's rays, framedears tied with a ribbon, a star at the top and the inscription USSR at the bottom.
Now in catalogs with descriptions of rare and valuable coins, as well as in discussions and disputes about the cost of any numismatic collection of those times, the Gulf of Guinea on the coins of the USSR has become one of the criteria by which the rarity of a specimen is evaluated. This takes into account the degree of its severity, the presence or absence of a parallel in this area, the clarity of the contours of the continents, as well as some other factors. Until now, there are disputes about whether it is necessary to take into account the Gulf of Guinea when examining coins, or it only confuses the expert more when performing such painstaking work.
Conclusion
It's paradoxical, but on the Guinean coast, the image of which, by the way, is present on the currency of not only the former Soviet Union, but also some other states, more than half of the inhabitants live below the poverty line. And this is despite the huge deposits of minerals, natural gifts and the growing flow of tourists every year who want to personally see the Gulf of Guinea - not only the "beginning of the world", but also a real paradise on the planet!
