Land
Florida is a huge plateau the highest point in the state is being a hilltop in the panhandle, 345 ft (105 m) above sea level, near the city of Lakewood, in Walton County. Much of Florida is barely above sea-level and no point in the state is more than 70 mi (113 km) from saltwater.
Most of the panhandle region is gently rolling country, much like that of southern Georgia and Alabama, except that large swampy areas cut in from the Gulf coast. The east coast of Florida is shielded from the Atlantic by a string of sandbars while the west coast is cut by numerous bays and inlets. Near its southern tip are the Ten Thousand Islands, a mass of mostly tiny mangrove-covered islets. Key West lies southwest of the peninsula at 24°33′ N, which is the southernmost point of the US mainland.
Florida has 30,000 lakes, ponds, and sinks, of which Lake Okeechobee in south-central Florida is the largest in Florida and the fourth largest in the US. Silver Springs, near Ocala in north-central Florida, has the largest average flow of all inland springs, 823 cu ft (23 cu m) per second. The numerous underground streams and caverns are created by the action of groundwater and rainfall in dissolving portions of the thick limestone layer that underlies Florida's sandy soil. There are about 700 rivers, streams, and creeks,the longest being St. Johns, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Other important rivers of Florida are Suwannee, and the Apalachicola. There are many islands around the mainland, the bests known are Florida Keys of which Key Largo is the largest and Key West is the most popular one.
Almost all the southeastern peninsula and the entire southern end are covered by the Everglades, the world's largest sawgrass swamp, covering an area of approximately 5,000 sq mi (13,000 sq km). The Everglades is, a huge river, in which water flows south–southwest from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay. No point in the Everglades is more than 7 ft (2 m) above sea level and its surface remains largely submerged during the rainy season. Big Cypress Swamp covers the west and north of Everglades.
