East Timor

Introduction

East Timor is the eastern half of the island of Timor in the Indonesian archipelago, with an outlier known as Oecusse on the northwest coast. The country became independent in 2002.

Much of the country consists of rugged, forested mountains trending west to east, with many deeply incised valleys opening to both north and south coasts. Much of the north coast is steep, with low-lying areas at valley mouths, but there is a more extensive coastal plain in the south. Hard metamorphic rocks dominate the northwest, but there are limestone areas in the eastern part of the country.

The climate is tropical monsoonal, with northerly winds in the wet season (November–May) when thunderstorms and heavy rain alternate with drier periods of weaker SE winds. In the dry season (June–October), the prevailing winds are the SE trade winds, which however bring rain to the south coast. Waves generated by these winds are generally small, but nearshore waters can be choppy in the SE monsoon. Mean...