Magdalena is a department of Colombia, located in the north of the country by the Caribbean Sea, with more than 1.3 million people. The capital of the Magdalena Department is Santa Marta and was named after the Magdalena River. The department inherited the name of one of the original nine states of the United States of Colombia that its current territory integrated.
The Department of Magdalena is located on the North Coast of the Colombian Caribbean Region.
On the north it borders the Caribbean Sea. On the northeast it borders the La Guajira Department, being divided by the Palomino River. On the east it borders with the Cesar Department, which is in part divided by the Guaraní River.
On the west, it is divided by the Magdalena River, and it borders the departments of Atlantico in the Northwest, and Bolívar in the West and Southwest.
The territory of Magdalena has an area of approximately 23,188 km², small compared to other regions, but in its territory various types of different ecoregions are found. From the beaches and sea landscape in the North, the snow-covered peaks in the Sierra, the swampy marshes in the west, the cloud forests, to the grasslands inland, the urban districts, the farmlands, the dry desert like, the deep rain forest, the rocky rivers to many other small ecosystems. These ecosystem support different fauna and flora and house many delicate species.