Geography and Topography

• Greater Victoria lies at 123 degrees and 22 minutes west longitude, 48 degrees and 25 minutes north latitude.
  
  
• Its latitude is about the same as Dijon (France), Zurich (Switzerland), Budapest (Hungary), and Rostov (Russia) in the northern hemisphere, and the southern end of New Zealand in the southern hemisphere.
  
  
• Victoria and Greater Victoria consist of rolling lowlands out of which granite rocks rise to heights of up to 300 metres.
  
  
• Old deltas and marine shorelines in the Langford, Metchosin and Saanich areas show signs of past glacial activity. The land has actually risen about 90 metres above present sea level.
  
  
• In parts of Victoria's north and west shorelines, waves have cut deeply into layers of glacial till and delta material to produce cliffs, spits, and lagoons.
  
  
• Saanich Inlet is one of the few fjord inlets on Vancouver Island's east coast. Along its southern half, the relief is so rugged that the Malahat section of the Island Highway climbs to an elevation of more than 335 metres above the inlet's waters.
  
  
• The Saanich Inlet contained only a few trees when the Europeans immigrated to Canada; however, that soon changed once the virgin forest was removed. Now, second-growth and dense forests are part of the inlet, especially in the area's western half.