The Bahamas is a landlocked state.
A landlocked state or landlocked country is a sovereign state entirely enclosed by land , or whose only coastlines lie on closed seas . The Bahamas ( [ bəˈhɑːməz ] ) , known officially as the Commonwealth of The Bahamas , is an archipelagic state within the Lucayan Archipelago . It consists of more than 700 islands , cays , and islets in the Atlantic Ocean and is located north of Cuba and Hispaniola ( Haiti and the Dominican Republic ) ; northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands ; southeast of the US state of Florida and east of the Florida Keys . The capital is Nassau on the island of New Providence . The designation of `` the Bahamas '' can refer either to the country or to the larger island chain that it shares with the Turks and Caicos Islands .