Zulia State
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Estado Zulia is one of Venezuela's 23 states (estados). The state capital is Maracaibo. The state covers a total surface area of 63 100 km² and, in 2001, had an estimated population of 2 983 679. It is located in the northwestern part of the country.
Geography
Lake Maracaibo, the largest lake in South America, lies within Zulia. The Lake Maracaibo Basin covers one of the largest oil and gas reserves in this hemisphere, bringing enormous wealth to the country. A long and mostly uninhabited border separates Venezuela from Colombia to the north and west from the Guajira Peninsula to the mountains of Perija. Venezuela's Andean states of Tachira, Mérida and Trujillo border Zulia State at the Southern end of Lake Maracaibo and finally the states of Lara and Falcón complete the boundaries of Zulia.
The name Venezuela also comes from the Lake Maracaibo area. Spanish Conquistadors sailing into this area found the indigenous peoples living in communities of huts supported by stilts along the shores of the Lake over 500 years ago and promptly named this new territory "Little Venice" or Venezuela.
Municipalities and municipal seats
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- Almirante Padilla (El Toro)
- Baralt (San Timoteo)
- Cabimas (Cabimas)
- Catatumbo (Encontrados)
- Colón (San Carlos del Zulia)
- Francisco Javier Pulgar (Pueblo Nuevo / El Chivo)
- Jesús Enrique Lossada (La Concepción)
- Jesús María Semprún (Casigua el Cubo)
- La Cañada de Urdaneta (Concepción)
- Lagunillas (Ciudad Ojeda)
- Machiques de Perijá (Machiques)
- Mara (San Rafael del Moján)
- Maracaibo (Maracaibo)
- Miranda (Los Puertos de Altagracia)
- Páez (Sinamaica)
- Rosario de Perijá (La Villa del Rosario)
- San Francisco (San Francisco)
- Santa Rita (Santa Rita)
- Simón Bolívar (Tía Juana)
- Sucre (Bobures)
- Valmore Rodríguez (Bachaquero)