Uruguay (República Oriental del Uruguay) is a presidential republic located in the central-southern part of South America, bordered to the north and north-east with Brazil, to the west with Argentina and faces to the south on the Río de la Plata and to the east over the Atlantic. Montevideo, the capital, located on the Río de la Plata, is the main economic, administrative and cultural centre of the country and one of the biggest and most important ports of South America.

The uruguayan territory is largely flat, southward is a wavy plain alternating with marshy areas and internal lagoons along the coast, including, along the border with Brazil, the vast Laguna Merin (Lagoa Mirim in Portuguese). The rest of the territory is made up of a flatland alternating with hills (cuchillas). The highest point of the country is the Cerro Catedral (514 metres) in the Sierra de Carapé, in the southern part of the nation. The main river in the country is the Uruguay river which marks the border with Argentina, the Rio Negro, a tributary of the Uruguay river, divides the south of the country from the north.