Burma, or Myanmar, is a country with a tumultuous political history, yet it also boasts rich cultural and natural heritage. Its landforms are a representative slice of South Asia topography: sizzling mangrove-lined channels on the margin of land and sea, extensive floodplains along big rivers, forest-clad highlands, and lofty mountains glazed with ice and snow.

General Topography

Burma serves as part of the topographic and ecological bridge of Southeast Asia, spanning a number of distinct geomorphic regions. Very generally, highlands bound the low floodplain country of central Burma, with the broad Irrawaddy Delta southwest of Yangon, along the Andaman Sea. Northern Burma fronts the southeastern fringe of the Himalayas, the planet's greatest mountain chain, formed (and still forming) by the collision of two tectonic plates -- the Indian and the Eurasian. The Shan Plateau rises to the east, while the western border with India is broken with ranges like the Chin Hills. In the far southern strip of the country, bordering Thailand, the coastal plain swells to the rainforest hills and mountains of the Malay Peninsula.

Hkakabo Razi

The highest summit in Burma belongs, not surprisingly, to the Himalayas: Hkakabo Razi, straddling the borders with Tibet and India. Soaring 19,294 feet in the Eastern Himalayas, the peak supports glaciers and icefields gleaming above lower, gorge-cleft flanks draped in tropical forest, with transitional belts of coniferous woodland and other life zones in between. This great spread of ecological domains makes Hkakabo Razi and other tropical high summits critical bastions of biodiversity. A national park partly protects the mountain and its surroundings.

Irrawaddy River

The great Irrawaddy -- also called the Ayeyarwady -- is the heart of Burma, certainly a vital bloodstream for much of the country's population. The river is born from headwater tributaries nourished by Himalayan glaciers; from these rugged heights, the Irrawaddy courses southward, through gorges and meandering across lowland flats toward the Andaman Sea. The fertile soils of its floodplain and delta support significant rice production. Burma's biggest city, Yangon (or Rangoon), lies along one of the distributaries of the channel-laced Irrawaddy Delta, the Yangon River. Major influences on the Irrawaddy's flow are the seasonal deluges of the monsoon and snowmelt off the Himalayan ridges and summit in its upper watershed.

Ecological Attractions

Burma's landforms provide the foundation for the ecosystems defining the country's natural character. Wild boar and enormous estuarine crocodiles (also called saltwater or Indo-Pacific crocodiles) find refuge in the coastal mangrove swamps of the Irrawaddy Delta, which includes some protected acreage like Meinmahla Kyun Wildlife Sanctuary. Huge birds of prey like bearded vultures or lammergeyers, which drop bones from the sky to bust them open for marrow, soar the high buttresses of Hkakabo Razi and other Himalayan peaks. The mountains of the Burmese-Java Arc on the India-Burma border support rich pine forests at their middle elevations, and are roamed by beasts such as the Asiatic black bear -- also called "moon bear" for the white crescent often gracing its chest.

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