Alabama is the 30th largest state in the United States with 52,423
square miles (135,775 kmē) of total area: 3.19% of the area is
water, making Alabama 23rd in the amount of surface water, also
giving it the second largest inland waterway system in the United
States. About three-fifths of the land area is a gentle plain with a
general descent towards the Mississippi River and the Gulf of
Mexico. The North Alabama region is mostly mountainous, with the
Tennessee River cutting a large valley creating numerous creeks,
streams, rivers, mountains, and lakes. Another natural wonder in
Alabama is "Natural Bridge" rock, the longest natural bridge east of
the Rockies, located just south of Haleyville, in Winston County.
Alabama generally ranges in elevation from sea level, down at Mobile
Bay, to over 1,800 feet (550 m) in the Appalachian Mountains in the
northeast. The highest point is Mount Cheaha (see map), at a height
of 2,407 ft (733 m).
States bordering Alabama include Tennessee to the north; Georgia to
the east; Florida to the south; and Mississippi to the west. Alabama
has coastline at the Gulf of Mexico, in the extreme southern edge of
the state.
National Parks in Alabama include Horseshoe Bend National Military
Park near Alexander City; Little River Canyon National Preserve near
Fort Payne; Russell Cave National Monument in Bridgeport; Tuskegee
Airmen National Historic Site in Tuskegee; and Tuskegee Institute
National Historic Site near Tuskegee.
Alabama also contains the Natchez Trace Parkway, the Selma To
Montgomery National Historic Trail, and the Trail Of Tears National
Historic Trail.
Suburban Baldwin County, along the Gulf Coast, is the largest county
in the state in both land area and water area.
A 5-mile (8 km)-wide meteorite impact crater is located in Elmore
County, just north of Montgomery. This is the Wetumpka crater, which
is the site of "Alabama's greatest natural disaster". A 1,000-foot
(300 m)-wide meteorite hit the area about 80 million years ago. The
hills just east of downtown Wetumpka showcase the eroded remains of
the impact crater that was blasted into the bedrock, with the area
labeled the Wetumpka crater or astrobleme ("star-wound") because of
the concentric rings of fractures and zones of shattered rock that
can be found beneath the surface. In 2002, Christian Koeberl with
the Institute of Geochemistry University of Vienna published
evidence and established the site as an internationally recognized
impact crater.