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Map of the approximate location of the Top End within the Northern Territory shown in red.

The Top End is the second northernmost point on the continent of Australia, behind the Cape York Peninsula. It covers a rather vaguely-defined area of perhaps 400,000 square kilometres bounded by sea on three sides (the Indian Ocean on the west, the Arafura Sea to the north, and the Gulf of Carpentaria to the east), and by the almost waterless semi-arid interior of Australia to the south.

The Top End, though less frequently visited and less well-known overseas than the arid southern part of the Northern Territory, referred to by Australians as the Red Centre and the largest town of which is Alice Springs, contains the Territory's other major towns, Darwin, Katherine and Palmerston.

The transition from the lush, steamy tropical environment of the north to the semi-arid mulga scrubland, mallee, and sand dunes of the centre is gradual, and the demarcation line that divides the Top End from the centre is arbitrary.

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