Caribbean SeaThe sea along the east coast, part of the Atlantic.
Pacific OceanThe ocean along the southwest coast.
Lake NicaraguaThe largest freshwater lake in Central America.
Gulf of HondurasAn inlet of the Caribbean off Belize, Guatemala and Honduras.
Gulf of PanamaA gulf of the Pacific on Panama's south coast.
Peninsulas, coasts, ranges, small lakes 11
Yucatan PeninsulaDivides the Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean Sea.
Isthmus of PanamaThe narrow land that links North and South America.
Nicoya PeninsulaOn Costa Rica's Pacific coast.
Azuero PeninsulaIn southern Panama, west of the Gulf of Panama.
Osa PeninsulaIn southwestern Costa Rica, on the Pacific.
Mosquito CoastThe Caribbean coast of eastern Nicaragua and Honduras.
Sierra Madre de ChiapasRuns from Chiapas in Mexico into Guatemala.
Darién GapThe forest where Panama meets Colombia.
Lake ManaguaNorthwest of Lake Nicaragua; also called Lake Xolotlán.
Lake IzabalIn eastern Guatemala, close to the Gulf of Honduras.
Gatun LakeA reservoir that ships cross on the Panama Canal.
Rivers, the canal and the Maya Mountains 9
Panama CanalLinks the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean.
San Juan RiverFlows from Lake Nicaragua east to the Caribbean Sea.
Coco RiverRuns along the border of Honduras and Nicaragua.
Usumacinta RiverIn northwestern Guatemala and southeastern Mexico.
Motagua RiverRuns east across Guatemala to the Gulf of Honduras.
Lempa RiverFlows through Honduras and El Salvador to the Pacific.
Ulúa RiverRuns north through Honduras to the Gulf of Honduras.
Río Grande de MatagalpaCrosses Nicaragua to the Caribbean Sea.
Maya MountainsA low range in Belize and eastern Guatemala.
How this list was compiled: Names and outlines: Natural Earth 5.1.2 physical layers (credited under the drawing; they are the drawing and the first source of every name). Every name and detail line was read on 2026-10-01 in the opening of the feature's English Wikipedia article and in a second text read the same day. Second texts: the GeoNames gazetteer (https://www.geonames.org/search.html?q=Lago+de+Izabal and the same search for each name), which holds the Gulf of Honduras (also Bay of Honduras), the Golfo de Panamá, Lake Nicaragua (Cocibolca), Lake Managua (Lago Xolotlán), Lake Izabal (Guatemala), Lago Gatún (Panama, reservoir), the Yucatan Peninsula, the Nicoya and Osa peninsulas (Costa Rica), the Azuero Peninsula and the Isthmus of Panama (Panama), the Sierra Madre de Chiapas (Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras), the Maya Mountains (Belize, Guatemala), the Mosquito Coast (Nicaragua, Honduras), the Darién region (Panama, Colombia), the Usumacinta (Mexico), the Motagua (Guatemala), the Ulúa (Honduras), the Coco (Nicaragua, Honduras), the Río Grande de Matagalpa (Nicaragua), the Lempa (El Salvador, Honduras) and the Panama Canal; and the World Factbook of the United States government, country pages as mirrored at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/factbook/factbook.json/master/central-america-n-caribbean/nu.json (and bh, gt, es, ho, cs, pm in the same folder): every one of the seven countries is in Central America; Nicaragua holds the largest freshwater body in Central America, Lago de Nicaragua, and Lago de Managua; Guatemala borders the Gulf of Honduras (Caribbean Sea) and has Lago de Izabal; Honduras has the eastern Mosquito Coast; Belize has low mountains in the south; Panama is the land bridge that connects North and South America and its canal links the Atlantic with the Pacific by way of the Caribbean Sea; the Darien area is in Panama; Rio San Juan is a department of Nicaragua. Where a river ends, which way it runs and what lies beside what are read from the drawing and from the Wikipedia openings. The Darién Gap is named so by Natural Earth and Wikipedia; GeoNames and the Factbook say Darién or Darien. Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_geography_regions_polys (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_geography_regions_polys.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_geography_marine_polys (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_geography_marine_polys.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_geography_marine_polys (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_geography_marine_polys.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_lakes (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_rivers_lake_centerlines (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_rivers_lake_centerlines.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Surrounding land from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_admin_0_countries_lakes (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_admin_0_countries_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection centred on 14.3°N 85.6°W. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. Licence: public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)
How it works
This physical map of Central America without labels prints the land from the Yucatan Peninsula to the edge of Colombia with no names and no country borders. Twenty-five features wait to be written in.
Read the full guide
Blank Central America map with physical features: a word bank
Water: Caribbean Sea, Gatun Lake, Gulf of Honduras, Gulf of Panama, Lake Izabal, Lake Managua, Lake Nicaragua, Pacific Ocean. Land: Azuero Peninsula, Darién Gap, Isthmus of Panama, Maya Mountains, Mosquito Coast, Nicoya Peninsula, Osa Peninsula, Sierra Madre de Chiapas, Yucatan Peninsula. Rivers and the canal: Coco, Lempa, Motagua, Panama Canal, Río Grande de Matagalpa, San Juan, Ulúa, Usumacinta.
Five pointer lines
Five features are too small to write on, so each has a short pointer line: Lake Managua, Lake Izabal, Gatun Lake, the Osa Peninsula and the Panama Canal. Write those names at the end of their lines.
Only one river on the sheet reaches the Pacific Ocean: the Lempa.
Two rivers end in the Gulf of Honduras: the Motagua runs east to it, the Ulúa north.
Two rivers cross to the Mosquito Coast: the Coco is the northern one, the Río Grande de Matagalpa the southern.
Questions and answers
Does the physical map of Central America without labels have an answer key?
Yes. Print the answer key and each of the 25 names is written on the map where it belongs. There is a numbered worksheet too, with a line under the map for each name.
Why is it called the Mosquito Coast?
It is named after the Miskito people of that coast. The name covers the Caribbean shore of eastern Nicaragua and Honduras.
Which lakes are on a physical map of Central America?
This one draws four. Lake Nicaragua and the smaller Lake Managua are both in Nicaragua. Lake Izabal, the largest lake in Guatemala, drains to the Gulf of Honduras, and Gatun Lake is the reservoir ships cross on the Panama Canal.
What is the Darién Gap?
The roadless rainforest where Panama meets Colombia, at the southeast end of the map. It is the one break in the Pan-American Highway, which stops at Yaviza in Panama and starts again at Turbo in Colombia.