Sea · Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana
Gulf of Guinea
The Gulf of Guinea is a huge bend in the Atlantic Ocean along the coast of West and Central Africa. Somewhere in its warm water, the Equator crosses the Prime Meridian.
Picture credit: Taiye619 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Francisco Anzola (CC BY 2.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Gulf of Guinea?
Part of: Atlantic Ocean.
Countries on its coasts: Liberia, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, São Tomé and Príncipe, the Republic of the Congo, DR Congo, Angola.
The story behind it
Look at a globe and find the spot where 0° latitude meets 0° longitude: it lies in the Gulf of Guinea, far out at sea. It is nicknamed Null Island, even though there is no island there. The coast of the gulf curves like a giant elbow, and its shape fits surprisingly well with the coast of South America from Brazil to the Guianas. This is one of the clues that Africa and South America were once joined. Big rivers such as the Niger and the Volta flow into the gulf, and a chain of volcanic islands rises from the sea: Bioko, Príncipe, São Tomé and Annobón. Fishing boats catch sardines, anchovies and mackerel, and sea turtles swim along the beaches. Cities like Accra in Ghana lie on the shore. Where exactly the gulf ends in the south is described in different ways, so its size is only an estimate.
Find it on the globe
Gulf of Guinea is there as a name written across its water — tap the water and its card opens. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
Questions children ask
How big is the Gulf of Guinea?
It covers about 2 350 000 km², more than six times the size of Germany. Because people draw its southern edge in different places, other books may give a different number.
Where do the Equator and the Prime Meridian meet?
They cross in the open water of the Gulf of Guinea, at 0° latitude and 0° longitude. The point is nicknamed Null Island, but there is no land there, only sea.
Which islands lie in the Gulf of Guinea?
A chain of volcanic islands: Bioko and Annobón belong to Equatorial Guinea, while São Tomé and Príncipe form their own small country. They were built up by volcanoes rising from the seabed.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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