Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta), a landlocked country in West Africa, has an area of 274,200 sq km (105,869 sq mi), with a length of 873 km (542 mi) ENE–WSW and a width of 474 km (295 mi) SSE–NNW. Comparatively, the area occupied by Burkina Faso is slightly larger than the state of Colorado. Bounded on the E by Niger, on the SE by Benin (formerly Dahomey), on the S by Togo, Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire, and on the W and N by Mali, Burkina Faso has a total boundary length of 3,192 km (1,983 mi).
The capital city of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, is located in the center of the country.