Romania is a country at the confluence of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east and the Black Sea to the southeast. It has a predominantly temperate-continental climate, and an area of 238,397 km², with a population of around 19 million. Romania is the twelfth-largest country in Europe, and the sixth-most populous member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest; other major urban areas include Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Iași, Constanța, Craiova, Brașov, and Galați.
The Danube, Europe's second-longest river, rises in Germany's Black Forest and flows in a southeasterly direction for 2,857 km, before emptying into Romania's Danube Delta. The Carpathian Mountains, which cross Romania from the north to the southwest, include Moldoveanu Peak, at an altitude of 2,544 m.
Romania was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877.