Africa | History, People, Countries, Map, & Facts

Africa ’ south sum land area is approximately 11,724,000 square miles ( 30,365,000 square kilometer ), and the celibate measures about 5,000 miles ( 8,000 kilometer ) from union to south and about 4,600 miles ( 7,400 kilometer ) from east to west. Its northern extremity is Al-Ghīrān Point, near Al-Abyaḍ Point ( Cape Blanc ), Tunisia ; its southerly extremity is Cape Agulhas, South Africa ; its farthest bespeak east is Xaafuun ( Hafun ) Point, near Cape Gwardafuy ( Guardafui ), Somalia ; and its western extremity is Almadi Point ( Pointe des Almadies ), on Cape Verde ( Cap Vert ), Senegal. In the northeast, Africa was joined to Asia by the Sinai Peninsula until the construction of the Suez Canal. Paradoxically, the coastline of Africa—18,950 miles ( 30,500 kilometer ) in length—is light than that of Europe, because there are few inlets and few large bays or gulf .

Britannica Quiz
Destination Africa : fact or fabrication ?
Is the northernmost point of Africa far north than the southernmost point of Europe ? See if your geographic cognition points north or south in this travel through Africa .
Off the coasts of Africa a issue of islands are associated with the continent. Of these Madagascar, one of the largest islands in the earth, is the most significant. early, smaller islands include the Seychelles, Socotra, and early islands to the east ; the Comoros, Mauritius, Réunion, and other islands to the southeast ; Ascension, St. Helena, and Tristan district attorney Cunha to the southwest ; Cape Verde, the Bijagós Islands, Bioko, and São Tomé and Príncipe to the west ; and the Azores and the Madeira and Canary islands to the northwest. The celibate is cut about equally in two by the Equator, so that most of Africa lies within the tropical region, bounded on the north by the Tropic of Cancer and on the south by the Tropic of Capricorn. Because of the start formed by western Africa, the greater depart of Africa ’ s territory lies north of the Equator. Africa is crossed from union to south by the prime prime ( 0° longitude ), which passes a brusque distance to the east of Accra, Ghana. In antiquity the Greeks are said to have called the continent Libya and the Romans to have called it Africa, possibly from the Latin aprica ( “ cheery ” ) or the greek aphrike ( “ without cold ” ). The list Africa, however, was chiefly applied to the northern coast of the continent, which was, in effect, regarded as a southern extension of Europe. The Romans, who for a clock time ruled the north African slide, are besides said to have called the area south of their settlements Afriga, or the Land of the Afrigs—the name of a Berber community south of Carthage.

The whole of Africa can be considered as a huge tableland rising steeply from narrow coastal strips and consisting of ancient crystalline rocks. The tableland ’ south surface is higher in the southeast and tilts downward toward the northeast. In general the tableland may be divided into a southeastern part and a northwestern dowry. The northwestern partially, which includes the Sahara ( defect ) and that depart of North Africa known as the Maghrib, has two cragged regions—the Atlas Mountains in northwestern Africa, which are believed to be separate of a system that extends into southerly Europe, and the Ahaggar ( Hoggar ) Mountains in the Sahara. The southeastern partially of the tableland includes the ethiopian Plateau, the East African Plateau, and—in eastern South Africa, where the tableland boundary falls down in a scarp—the Drakensberg range. One of the most remarkable features in the geological structure of Africa is the east African Rift System, which lies between 30° and 40° E. The rift itself begins northeast of the celibate ’ mho limits and extends southerly from the ethiopian Red Sea coast to the Zambezi River basin. Africa contains an enormous wealth of mineral resources, including some of the universe ’ s largest reserves of fossil fuels, metallic ores, and gems and valued metals. This richness is matched by a great diverseness of biological resources that includes the intensely exuberant equatorial rainforests of Central Africa and the world-famous populations of wildlife of the easterly and southerly portions of the celibate. Although department of agriculture ( primarily subsistence ) still dominates the economies of many african countries, the exploitation of these resources became the most significant economic activity in Africa in the twentieth century. climatic and other factors have exerted considerable influence on the patterns of human settlement in Africa. While some areas appear to have been inhabited more or less endlessly since the click of world, enormous regions—notably the desert areas of northerly and southwest Africa—have been largely unoccupied for prolong periods of time. frankincense, although Africa is the second largest continent, it contains only about 10 percentage of the populace ’ s population and can be said to be underpopulated. The greater contribution of the continent has retentive been inhabited by Black peoples, but in historic times there besides have occurred major immigrations from both Asia and Europe. Of all extraneous settlements in Africa, that of the Arabs has made the greatest shock. The Islamic religion, which the Arabs carried with them, spread from North Africa into many areas south of the Sahara, so that many western African peoples are now largely Islamized. This article treats the physical and homo geography of Africa, followed by discussion of geographic features of special interest. For discussion of individual countries of the continent, see such articles as Egypt, Madagascar, and Sudan. african regions are treated under the titles Central Africa, eastern Africa, North Africa, Southern Africa, and westerly Africa ; these articles besides contain the principal treatment of african historical and cultural exploitation. For discussion of major cities of the celibate, see such articles as Alexandria, Cairo, Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Kinshasa. Related topics are discussed in the articles literature, African ; literature, South African ; architecture, African ; art, African ; dance, African ; music, African ; theater, African ; art and architecture, egyptian ; Islam ; arts, Islamic ; and Islamic world.