Guinea, Lower

a natural region of Central Africa bordering on the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean on the east and located between the tip of the Bight of Biafra on the north and the upper reaches of the Cuanza River on the south. Lower Guinea includes a narrow strip of coastal lowland as well as the socle plains, plateaus, and mountains that rise behind it and are collectively called the Southern Guinea Highlands. The cold Benguela Current, which runs along the coast from north to south, decreases the humidity of the climate, and south of the mouth of the Congo River the humid evergreen forests give way to parklike savannas. Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Zaire, the People’s Republic of the Congo, and Angola are partly or entirely located within Lower Guinea.