South Africa is a wide, open country, covering about 1 223 201 km². It is about as large as Holland, Belgium, Italy, France and West Germany put together, or Texas and California combined. For administrative purposes the country is divided into 9 provinces - Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North-West, Limpopo Province, Freestate, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Northern Cape.