Liberia: landmarks, animals & facts for kids

1 landmark · 1 animal

Liberia on My Earth Toy, the free 3D toy globe for kids: 1 landmark, 1 animal. Here you can see its flag, capital and size, then fly to every place on the globe.

Flag of Liberia

Eleven red and white horizontal stripes with a dark blue square in the top corner holding one white star.

Read about this flag →

Liberia at a glance

Capital: Monrovia
Continent: Africa
Area: 111,369 km²
Population: 5.6 million

Liberia is a country on the Atlantic coast of West Africa, between Sierra Leone, Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire. Its capital is Monrovia. Liberia was founded in the 19th century as a home for freed African Americans, and in 1847 it became Africa's first republic. Its name comes from the word liberty. Liberia has rainforests, long beaches and big rubber plantations, and its flag looks a lot like the flag of the United States, with a single star.

On My Earth Toy you can see the Ducor Hotel, once Liberia's grandest hotel, standing on a hill above Monrovia with wide views of the city and the ocean. Look out too for the pygmy hippopotamus, a small, shy hippo of the West African forests.

Geography and nature

Liberia has a flat coast with lagoons, mangroves and sandbars, rising inland to hills, plateaus and low mountains. The highest point, Mount Wuteve, is 1,447 metres tall. The country is very rainy, and it holds a large share of the Upper Guinean rainforest that remains in West Africa. Sapo National Park protects forest elephants, chimpanzees, pygmy hippos and many birds. Rivers such as the St. Paul and the Cavalla flow down to the sea.

People, languages and culture

English is the official language, and many people speak Liberian English along with one of more than two dozen local languages, such as Kpelle, Bassa and Vai. The Vai people even created their own writing system in the 19th century. Most Liberians are Christian, and there is a sizeable Muslim minority. Rice is the main food, often served with spicy soups and stews made with palm oil, cassava leaves or fish. Football is the favourite sport.

History in a nutshell

Many peoples lived in the area long before 1822, when the American Colonization Society began settling freed African Americans on the coast. The settlers declared independence on 26 July 1847, and Liberia was never colonised by a European power. For a long time, descendants of the settlers held most of the power. Two civil wars between 1989 and 2003 caused great suffering. In 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became Africa's first elected female head of state, and she later shared the Nobel Peace Prize.

Fun facts

Monrovia is named after James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States.
Liberia's flag has eleven stripes, for the men who signed its declaration of independence.
Pygmy hippos weigh only about a tenth as much as common hippos and spend much of their time in forest streams.
The Vai script is one of the few writing systems invented in West Africa.

Famous landmarks in Liberia

Ducor Hotel
Liberia · Africa
Once one of Africa's few five-star hotels when it opened in 1960, the Ducor stands abandoned since the civil wars on a hill overlooking Monrovia and the sea.