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Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude.
It is bounded by the Peninsula of Scandinavia, the mainland of Europe, and the islands of Denmark. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and the Little Belt. The Kattegat continues through Skagerrak into the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The Baltic Sea is connected by man-made waterways to the White Sea via the White Sea Canal, and to the North Sea via the Kiel Canal.
The Baltic Sea might be considered to be bordered on its northern edge by the Gulf of Bothnia, on its northeastern edge by the Gulf of Finland, and on its eastern edge by the Gulf of Riga. However, these various gulfs can be considered to be simply offshoots of the Baltic Sea, and therefore parts of it.
Countries
Countries that border on the sea are:
Islands
There are at least 12 islands within the Baltic Sea, of which the largest is Gotland (57,000 people, part of Sweden). For a full list see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_islands_in_the_Baltic_Sea
The Åland Islands (an autonomous part of the Realm of Finland) lie at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia marking the northern border of the Baltic Sea proper.
The largest islands belonging to Denmark, Zealand (7,000km² 2,200,000 people) and Funen (2,984km² 400,000 people), lie between the Baltic Sea and the Kattegat.