Printable Scholar
Home › Printable Maps › Physical Maps › Kentucky
Real cartographic data

Kentucky Physical Map

Kentucky’s eastern mountains and central karst plains tell a 400-million-year geological story.

Rendered from SRTM 30m elevation data + Natural Earth rivers/lakes + US Census state boundary. Four versions below, all free.

Highest Point

Black Mountain

4,145 ft

Lowest Point

Mississippi River

257 ft

Kentucky physical map showing the Cumberland Mountains, the Bluegrass region, and the Mississippi Plateau, with major peaks and cities labeled. Topographic relief from NASA SRTM elevation data.

Choose your version

Two maps, two versions of each.

The same Kentucky terrain as a classroom map and as wall art. All four are free PDFs.

Kentucky physical map, labeled: the Cumberland Mountains, the Bluegrass region, and the Mississippi Plateau, with the capital, cities and highest point marked
Labeled
Kentucky blank physical map: the same terrain with no labels, for labeling practice
Blank
Physical map

Kentucky physical map for the classroom

Elevation in color with shaded relief, plus the surrounding states and water for context. The labeled version marks the capital, major cities and the highest point. The blank version leaves them off so students can label the map themselves.

downloadLabeled PDFdownloadBlank PDF
Kentucky relief wall art on a dark background
Dark
Kentucky relief wall art on a light background
Light
Wall art

Kentucky relief wall art

Kentucky on its own, with strong shaded relief and no labels. The dark version has the most contrast. The light version uses far less ink on a home printer.

downloadDark PDFdownloadLight PDF

The physical geography of Kentucky

Kentucky slopes from mountains in the east to river lowlands in the west. The eastern part is the rugged Cumberland Plateau, and Black Mountain, the highest point, is near the Virginia border. The Bluegrass region around Lexington is gently rolling. South and west of it is the Pennyroyal, a limestone plateau full of sinkholes and caves, including Mammoth Cave. The far west, called the Jackson Purchase, is low land between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers. The Ohio River forms the entire northern border.

Major rivers

  • Ohio
  • Mississippi
  • Kentucky
  • Cumberland
  • Tennessee
  • Green

Find it on the map

  • The Ohio River tracing the whole northern border
  • Rugged mountains in the southeast
  • Low, flat land at the far western tip
verified

Built from real data, not stock images.

Every Kentucky physical map on this page was rendered from NASA SRTM 30-meter elevation data, with hydrography from Natural Earth and the shoreline-clipped state outline from the US Census Bureau. Each map is colored over that state’s own elevation range, and the relief shading is exaggerated so gentle terrain still shows.

Read full methodology arrow_forward

Pair with

map

Kentucky political map

The blank outline version of Kentucky (state borders, no terrain). Useful for political-geography exercises.

 view_list

All physical maps

Browse physical maps for every state, plus continents and the world.

More State Maps

States that border Kentucky

Physical maps of the 7 states that share a border with Kentucky.

Illinois Physical Map Illinois Physical map Indiana Physical Map Indiana Physical map Missouri Physical Map Missouri Physical map Ohio Physical Map Ohio Physical map Tennessee Physical Map Tennessee Physical map Virginia Physical Map Virginia Physical map West Virginia Physical Map West Virginia Physical map

The region and the whole country

Map of the Southeast US Regions Map US Physical Map

Physical maps for every state