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- Blank North Carolina map
NC · 100 counties · 53,819 sq mi · print landscape · South · South Atlantic
Blank North Carolina map
A blank outline of North Carolina, from the Smoky Mountains to the Outer Banks. All 100 county lines are hidden, leaving one straight edge, one mountain edge and a long coast.
What the outline shows
The map shows the state boundary alone. The north edge is a straight line against Virginia along about 36.5°N, running roughly 320 miles from the coast to Tennessee. The west edge follows the crest of the Appalachians, including the Great Smoky Mountains, against Tennessee. The southwest is a short straight line against Georgia, and the south edge with South Carolina is a set of straight segments with several jogs, ending at the coast near the Little River. The east is the Atlantic: the Outer Banks are drawn as a thin chain of barrier islands, with Pamlico and Albemarle sounds behind them and Cape Hatteras at the outermost point. Nothing inside is shown. Press Capital to mark Raleigh in the east-central part of the state, and Abbreviation for "NC".
Portrait or landscape
North Carolina is about 500 miles from the Tennessee line to Cape Hatteras and only about 150 miles north to south. That is more than 3:1, so landscape is the only option that gives a usable print; in portrait the state would be a thin strip. Even in landscape the state is long enough that the Outer Banks come close to the right-hand page edge. If the exercise is about the coast alone, zoom to the area east of Raleigh and the sounds will fill the page.
Five classroom exercises
- Draw the Outer Banks from the Virginia line south to Cape Lookout and mark Cape Hatteras at the elbow; then shade Pamlico Sound behind them.
- Draw the Fall Line through Raleigh and Fayetteville and shade the three regions: Mountains, Piedmont and Coastal Plain.
- Trace the Cape Fear River from the Piedmont southeast to the Atlantic at Wilmington, and the Neuse River from Raleigh to Pamlico Sound.
- Place Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Durham and Winston-Salem, and note that all five lie in the Piedmont.
- Mark the Great Smoky Mountains along the Tennessee border and Mount Mitchell, the highest point east of the Mississippi, northeast of Asheville.
How to recognise the North Carolina outline
- A long, low shape with a straight top edge and a ragged bottom edge that steps down toward the west.
- A narrow pointed western end reaching into the Appalachians.
- A thin chain of islands, the Outer Banks, curving out from the coast with a sharp elbow at Cape Hatteras.
- Two big sounds, Albemarle and Pamlico, enclosed behind the islands.
Answer key and related maps
- North Carolina map — the labeled version with capital, cities and borders; use it as the answer key.
- Printable North Carolina map — the same outline with cities, county lines and the capital printed on.
- North Carolina county map — all 100 counties with their seats.
- Raleigh — the capital, in the eastern Piedmont.
- Neighbours: Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee.
- Appalachian Mountains and US coastlines.
- All blank state maps and the printable US maps index.