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 Central America physical map quiz asks 25 features on a map with no country borders: a sea, an ocean, two gulfs, four lakes, peninsulas, mountains, seven rivers and the Panama Canal. Tap the one each question names.
Read the full guide
Three rounds, easiest first
The quiz starts with the water you can see at once: the Caribbean Sea, the Pacific Ocean, two gulfs and Lake Nicaragua. Then come the peninsulas, the Mosquito Coast, the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, the Darién Gap and three small lakes, and last the rivers, the canal and the Maya Mountains. A small lake and the canal carry a ring; tap the ring.
What the map leaves off
No border is drawn, so the map runs from the Yucatan Peninsula, most of it in Mexico, to the corner of Colombia. The Cordillera de Talamanca, the volcanoes and the Gulf of Fonseca are not in the map data.
Lake Managua is the smaller lake northwest of Lake Nicaragua.
Three peninsulas point into the Pacific: Nicoya, Osa and Azuero, from northwest to southeast.
The San Juan River leaves Lake Nicaragua; the Coco River is farther north, on the border with Honduras.
Questions and answers
What are the physical features of Central America?
It is a narrow, mountainous strip of land between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. This quiz asks its peninsulas, the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, the Maya Mountains, the Mosquito Coast, four lakes, seven rivers and the Panama Canal.
What is the largest lake in Central America?
Lake Nicaragua, also called Cocibolca. It is the largest body of fresh water in Central America, and the San Juan River runs from it east to the Caribbean Sea.
Which two bodies of water does the Panama Canal connect?
The Caribbean Sea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean. The canal crosses the Isthmus of Panama, and ships pass over Gatun Lake on the way.
Which countries are in Central America?
Seven: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Their borders are not on this map; the Central America map quiz asks them.