Macedonia is a landlocked country that is geographically clearly defined  by a central valley formed by the Vardar river and framed along its  borders by mountain ranges. The terrain is mostly rugged, located  between the Šar Mountains and Osogovo,  which frame the valley of the Vardar river. Three large lakes — Lake  Ohrid, Lake Prespa and Dojran  Lake — lie on the southern borders, bisected by the frontiers with  Albania and Greece. Ohrid is considered to be one of the oldest lakes  and biotopes in the world.^[36] The region is seismically active and has been the site of destructive  earthquakes in the past, most recently in 1963 when Skopje was heavily  damaged by a major earthquake, killing over 1,000.

Macedonia also has scenic mountains. They belong to two different mountain ranges: the first is the Šar Mountains^[37][38] that continues to the West Vardar/Pelagonia group of mountains (Baba  Mountain, Nidže, Kozuf and Jakupica),  also known as the Dinaric range. The second range is the Osogovo–Belasica mountain chain, also known as the Rhodope range. The mountains belonging to the Šar  Mountains and the West Vardar/Pelagonia range are younger and higher  than the older mountains that are part of the Osogovo-Belasica mountain  group.