El Salvador & Salvadoran Culture Posters, Art Prints, Charts, & Maps

The Republic of El Salvador, the smallest country located in Central America, is bordered by Honduras to the north-northeast, Guatemala to the north-northwest and the North Pacific Ocean to the south and southwest. Nicaragua is across the Gulf of Fonseca to the southeast. El Salvador is the only Central American country to not have a coastline on the Caribbean Sea. El Salvador is a democratic republic, its legal system is based on civil, Roman law and common law with a Supreme Court review of legislative acts. Citizens over 18 are granted universal sufferage. The capital of El Salvador is San Salvador.

El Salvador, known as the 'Land of Volcanoes" and "Valley of the Hammocks", has a narrow Pacific coastal plain and a central plateau separating two parallel mountain ranges the cross the country east to west. The Salvadoran climate is tropical – the rainy season from May to October is considered winter, the dry season is November to April; temperature change is related to elevation rather than seasons. El Salvador is extremely susceptible to hurricanes and has frequent and sometimes very distructive volcanic and earthquake activity.

Ancient ruins of Tazumal and Chalchuapa date pre-Columbian settlement of the El Salvador region. The Spanish conquered the indigenous natives c 1524 and renamed the region El Salvador (The Savior) from Cuscatlan. From 1980-1992 El Salvador suffered through a civil war the claimed the lives of about 75,000 people.