What are the key geographic features of Nova Scotia?

Nova Scotia is the most populous Atlantic Canadian province, with about 1.05 million people in 55,284 square kilometres. The province comprises two main parts: the Nova Scotia peninsula (joined to New Brunswick by the narrow Chignecto Isthmus) and Cape Breton Island in the northeast. Smaller islands include Sable Island (a federally protected national park reserve), Brier Island, Long Island, and the Tusket Islands. No point in Nova Scotia is more than 67 kilometres from salt water.

Nova Scotia's coastline runs about 7,400 kilometres including all major indentations and small islands. The Atlantic shore from Yarmouth to Canso is rugged and rocky with countless small bays and harbours. The Bay of Fundy on the northern shore has the highest tides in the world, reaching 16 metres at the Minas Basin head of the bay. The Northumberland Strait separates Nova Scotia from Prince Edward Island. The Atlantic and Gulf of St. Lawrence (technically Northumberland Strait) coasts give the province two distinctive marine environments.

Cape Breton Island is connected to the Nova Scotia mainland by the Canso Causeway (opened 1955) and the parallel Canso Canal (opened 1956). The Cape Breton Highlands in the north of the island rise to 532 metres and are protected within Cape Breton Highlands National Park. The Cabot Trail (named after explorer John Cabot, who reached eastern Canada in 1497) is a 298-kilometre scenic route around the highlands. Bras d'Or Lake in central Cape Breton is a saltwater inland sea connected to the Atlantic, designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2011.

Halifax (population about 480,000) is the provincial capital, the largest city in Atlantic Canada, and the site of the second-largest natural ice-free harbour in the world after Sydney, Australia. The Citadel National Historic Site overlooks the harbour. Other major centres include Sydney (Cape Breton), Truro, New Glasgow, and Yarmouth. The province's economy centres on fisheries (lobster is the most valuable Atlantic species), offshore oil and gas (Sable Offshore Energy Project, 1999 to 2018), the Port of Halifax (Canada's only year-round ice-free Atlantic deep-water port), and the Department of National Defence presence at CFB Halifax and CFB Shearwater. Mi'kmaq First Nations have lived in Mi'kma'ki (Nova Scotia and adjacent Atlantic provinces) for thousands of years and hold treaty rights under the Peace and Friendship Treaties of 1760 and 1761.