Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country in Europe.

It has two parts in its name. Bosnia is in the north and middle. Herzegovina is in the south. There are lots of mountains and rivers. The capital city is Sarajevo.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula, in southeastern Europe. Its long name joins two old regions: Bosnia covers the north and center, and Herzegovina covers the south and southwest.

Most of the country is mountains, with forests, rivers and rocky limestone plateaus. Its capital is Sarajevo. Only a tiny strip of land, about 20 kilometers long, reaches the Adriatic Sea. More than 3 million people live there.

Bosnia and Herzegovina occupies 51,209 square kilometers of the western Balkan Peninsula. Britannica describes it as roughly triangular, bordered by Croatia on the north, west and south, Serbia on the east and Montenegro on the southeast, with a narrow extension reaching the Adriatic Sea. The historical region of Bosnia covers the north and center, Herzegovina the south and southwest.

These historical regions are not the same as the country's two political entities, set up by the Dayton Accords of 1995: the Republika Srpska in the north and east and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the west and center. The capital is Sarajevo; Mostar and Banja Luka are important regional cities. The last census, in 2013, counted 3,531,159 people, and the World Bank estimated 3,140,095 in 2025.

Sarajevo is the capital city.

Many people live and work there. In the town of Mostar, an old stone bridge curves over a river. Another long stone bridge in Višegrad has many arches.

Sarajevo is the capital. After 1448, the Ottomans built up a settlement called Vrhbosna into the city of Sarajevo. In 1984 the Winter Olympic Games were held there.

The town of Mostar is known for its Old Bridge, Stari Most, a stone arch over the Neretva River. The name comes from the bridge keepers, called mostari. The bridge you can see today was rebuilt in 2004 to match the old one. In the east, the Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge at Višegrad crosses the Drina River on 11 stone arches.

Ottoman forces took the settlement of Vrhbosna in 1448 and developed it into the city of Sarajevo, the capital today; travelers in the Ottoman period described its fountains, bridges, schools and libraries, and in 1984 it hosted the Winter Olympics. UNESCO notes that Mostar's name, first recorded in 1474, comes from the mostari, the bridge keepers. Its Old Bridge, designed by the architect Hajruddin following the design of his teacher, Mimar Sinan, was destroyed in the conflict of the 1990s and rebuilt in 2004; the Old Bridge Area became a World Heritage Site in 2005, which UNESCO calls a symbol of reconciliation and of coexisting communities.

The Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad, built at the end of the 16th century by the court architect Mimar Koca Sinan on the orders of the grand vizier whose name it carries, is 179.5 m long with 11 masonry arches spanning 11 to 15 m. It was inscribed in 2007.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has many mountains.

The tallest one is called Maglić. In the south, the hills are made of limestone rock. Some rivers there flow under the ground! Other big rivers flow north to the Sava River.

Mountain ranges run across the country from northwest to southeast, and the Dinaric Alps rise along the western border. The highest peak is Maglić, 2,386 meters tall, near the border with Montenegro.

In the south lies the Karst, a region of dry limestone plateaus full of caves and holes, where rivers flow mostly underground. Between the ridges are hollows called poljes, with soil good for farming. Big rivers such as the Bosna, Vrbas and Una flow north into the Sava River, while the Neretva turns southwest through the Karst toward the sea.

The terrain is largely mountainous. The Dinaric Alps dominate the western border, and ranges such as the Kozara, Vlašić, Grmeč and Raduša run northwest to southeast; Maglić, near the Montenegrin border, reaches 2,386 m. The Karst of the south and southwest is a region of arid limestone plateaus with caves, potholes and underground drainage; its uplands are often bare, but poljes between the ridges hold alluvial soil suitable for farming. Fault lines are widespread, and in 1969 an earthquake destroyed 70 percent of the buildings in Banja Luka.

The Sava, a tributary of the Danube, forms the northern border; the Bosna, Vrbas and Una flow north into it, and the Drina forms part of the border with Serbia. The Neretva turns sharply southwest through the Karst to the Adriatic. The Dinaric Alps largely cut the country off from Mediterranean weather: in Banja Luka, January averages about 0 °C and July about 22 °C, while Mostar averages about 6 °C in January and 26 °C in July.

Forests cover a big part of the land.

Bears and wolves live in the wild here. Otters and foxes live here too. Lots of plums grow in this country.

About two-fifths of Bosnia and Herzegovina is covered with forests of pine, beech and oak. They are home to bears, wolves, wild pigs, wildcats, foxes, badgers and otters, and there are falcons too.

Another wild animal here is the chamois, which looks a little like a goat. The country also has large national parks, such as Sutjeska, Kozara and Una, and nature reserves. Plums, grapes, apples and pears are common fruits.

Britannica describes about two-fifths of the country as forested with pine, beech and oak, and lists a rich wildlife that includes bears, wolves, wild pigs, wildcats, chamois (goatlike animals), otters, foxes, badgers and falcons. The country has large national parks, Sutjeska, Kozara and Una, as well as nature reserves, and its mountains and open spaces are used for hiking and skiing.

The karst rivers are a special feature: in the south, much of the water flows through underground channels in the limestone, and the country is rich in natural springs, many of them tapped for bottled mineral water or thermal spas. Grapes, apples, pears and especially plums are common fruits.

More than 3 million people live in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

People speak Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian. They can understand each other. The national dish is ćevapi, small grilled rolls of meat in bread.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has three official languages: Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian. They are so close that speakers understand each other, and they can be written in two alphabets, the Latin one and Cyrillic.

The three largest groups of people are Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. In the old town of Mostar, mosques, churches and synagogues stood side by side. Coffeehouses are popular meeting places. Foods include stuffed vegetables and sweet baklava-style cakes, and the national dish is ćevapi, small grilled rolls of meat served in bread. Plums are made into thick jam.

The three largest groups are the Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats, who share a South Slav heritage; Britannica estimates Bosniaks at more than two-fifths of the population, Serbs at roughly one-third and Croats at less than one-fifth. Islam, Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholicism are all practiced, generally corresponding to those three groups. Most people's mother tongue is one of the mutually intelligible languages now called Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian, written in Latin or Cyrillic letters.

About half of the population lives in rural areas. Cultural life mixes European and Turkish influences: kafane (traditional coffeehouses) and modern café-bars are meeting places, and the cuisine includes stuffed vegetables, coffee, baklava-type cakes and ćevapi, grilled rolls of seasoned ground meat. Ivo Andrić, born in Bosnia, won the 1961 Nobel Prize for Literature; his novels, such as The Bridge on the Drina (1945), are concerned with the history of Bosnia. Almost every village has a football field.