Albania is a Mediterranean country in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Serbia and Montenegro in the north, the Republic of Macedonia in the east, and Greece in the south, has a coast on the Adriatic Sea in the west, and a coast on the Ionian Sea in the southwest. The country is an emerging democracy and is formally named the Republic of Albania
Albania consists of mostly hilly and mountainous terrain, the highest mountain, Korab in the district of Dibra reaching up to 2,753 m. The country mostly has a land climate, with cold winters and hot summers.
Besides capital city Tirana, with 520,000 inhabitants, the principal cities are Durres, Elbasan, Shkoder, Gjirokaster, Vlore and Korce. In Albanian grammar a word can have indefinite and definite forms, and this also applies to city names: so both Tirane and Tirana, Shkoder and Shkodra are used.
