Several countries have land below sea level or are known for areas below sea level:
- The Netherlands is famously known as a country with large portions below sea level—about 26% of the country is below sea level, and during storms, up to 59% can be flooded. Amsterdam, for example, sits about 7 feet below sea level and stays protected by an extensive system of dikes, canals, dunes, and floodgates.
- Other low-lying island nations such as Maldives, Tuvalu, and Kiribati have average elevations just above sea level, some as low as 1.5 to 2 meters, making them extremely vulnerable to rising sea levels caused by climate change.
- Natural depressions below sea level exist in several countries, such as the Dead Sea region shared by Israel, Jordan, and Syria, where the land can be approximately 413 meters below sea level. Other depressions occur in countries like Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, and China, but these are specific geographic features, not entire countries.
In summary, the Netherlands is the most notable country with significant inhabited land below sea level, maintained by human engineering, while some island nations have ground levels just slightly above sea level, and various natural depressions lie below sea level in parts of several countries.
