Lesotho - Simple English Wikipedia

# Lesotho

### From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

The flag of Lesotho

Lesotho is a small country in southern Africa. Its population is about 1,800,000. The capital of Lesotho is called Maseru.

## [edit] Geography

Lesotho has no coast on the sea nor on a lake. This type of country is called landlocked, meaning it is surrounded by land. All of Lesotho's trade must either be flown in by aeroplane, or brought in by land.

If you look at a map of Lesotho, you will see something unusual: it is completely surrounded by the country of South Africa and has no borders with any other country. This type of country is called an enclave. Enclave countries are very rare, but Lesotho is one. This makes Lesotho's relationship with South Africa very important to it.

Lesotho has many mountains and is one of the most mountainous countries in the world. All of Lesotho is over 1,400 m above sea level. People sometimes travel there to ski in winter. The many mountains in Lesotho mean that it rains a lot there. Lesotho uses some of its water to generate electricity and sells some of it to South Africa.

Location of Lesotho

## [edit] History

Lesotho became a country in 1818, but it was then called Basutoland. A man called Moshoeshoe brought several of the groups of people in the area together and formed a new country with him as its king. This new country came under attack from its enemies and in 1868 Moshoeshoe asked Queen Victoria of Great Britain for help. Great Britain said it would help if Lesotho became part of the British Empire.

Lesotho eventually gained its independence on 4 October 1966. Now it is a member of the British Commonwealth.

Countries and territories of Africa
Independent: Algeria | Angola | Benin | Botswana | Burkina Faso | Burundi | Cameroon | Cape Verde | Central African Republic | Chad | Comoros | Democratic Republic of the Congo | Republic of the Congo | Côte d'Ivoire | Djibouti | Egypt | Equatorial Guinea | Eritrea | Ethiopia | Gabon | The Gambia | Ghana | Guinea | Guinea-Bissau | Kenya | Lesotho | Liberia | Libya | Madagascar | Malawi | Mali | Mauritania | Mauritius | Morocco | Mozambique | Namibia | Niger | Nigeria | Rwanda | São Tomé and Príncipe | Senegal | Seychelles | Sierra Leone | Somalia | Somaliland | South Africa | Sudan | Swaziland | Tanzania | Togo | Tunisia | Uganda | Western Sahara | Zambia | Zimbabwe
Governed by other countries: Canary Islands | Ceuta and Melilla | Madeira Islands | Mayotte | Réunion | Saint Helena and dependencies

Retrieved from "http://simple.wikipedia.org../../../l/e/s/Lesotho.html"

Category: African countries

##### Views

- Article
- Talk
- Newest version

##### Search

##### In other languages

- Afrikaans
- አማርኛ
- Anglo Saxon
- العربية
- Aragonés
- Bân-lâm-gú
- Bosanski
- Български
- Català
- Česky
- Dansk
- Deutsch
- Eesti
- Ελληνικά
- English
- Español
- Esperanto
- Euskara
- فارسی
- Français
- Gaeilge
- Gàidhlig
- Galego
- 한국어
- Hrvatski
- Ido
- Ilokano
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Íslenska
- Italiano
- עברית
- ქართული
- Kernewek
- Kiswahili
- Kurdî / كوردي
- Latina
- Latviešu
- Lietuvių
- Magyar
- Македонски
- Bahasa Melayu
- Nederlands
- 日本語
- Norsk (bokmål)
- Norsk (nynorsk)
- Occitan
- Oyghurque
- Kapampangan
- Plattdüütsch
- Polski
- Português
- Română
- Русский
- Shqip
- Sicilianu
- Slovenčina
- Slovenščina
- Српски / Srpski
- Srpskohrvatski / Српскохрватски
- Suomi
- Svenska
- Tagalog
- ไทย
- Tiếng Việt
- Тоҷикӣ
- Türkçe
- Українська
- 中文