Brief Geography of Africa

Countries and territories in Africa

Countries (Click on a country for its details)

1. Algeria
2. Angola
3. Benin
4. Botswana
5. Burkina Faso
6. Burundi
7. Cameroon
8. Cape Verde
9. Central African Republic
10. Chad
11. Comoros
12. Democratic Republic of the Congo
13. Republic of the Congo
14. Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
15. Djibouti
16. Egypt
17. Equatorial Guinea
18. Eritrea
19. Ethiopia
20. Gabon
21. The Gambia
22. Ghana
23. Guinea
24. Guinea-Bissau
25. Kenya
26. Lesotho
27. Liberia
28. Libya
29. Madagascar
30. Malawi
31. Mali
32. Mauritania
33. Mauritius
34. Morocco
35. Mozambique
36. Namibia
37. Niger
38. Nigeria
39. Rwanda
40. São Tomé and Príncipe
41. Senegal
42. Seychelles
43. Sierra Leone
44. Somalia
45. South Africa
46. Sudan
47. Swaziland
48. Tanzania
49. Togo
50. Tunisia
51. Uganda
52. Zambia
53. Zimbabwe

Dependencies and other territories

• British Indian Ocean Territory
• Mayotte
• Réunion
• St. Helena
• Western Sahara (SADR)

Africa, one of the six continents on this planet, is comprised of 61 political territories (including 53 countries), covering a surface area of 30,368,609 km² (11,725,385 mi²), including adjacent islands.

Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea and from much of Asia by the Red Sea, Africa is joined to Asia at its Northeast extremity by the Isthmus of Suez, 130 km (80 miles) wide.

The average elevation of the continent approximates closely to 600 m (2,000 ft) above sea level, roughly near to the mean elevation of both North and South America, but considerably less than that of Asia, 950 m (3,117 ft).

In contrast with other continents, it is marked by the comparatively small area of either very high or very low ground, lands. Moderately elevated tablelands are thus the characteristic feature of the continent, though the surface of these is broken by higher peaks and ridges.

The following table gives the approximate altitudes of the chief mountains and lakes of the continent:

Mountains Height in feet Height in meters

Mount Rungwe (Nyasa)...............................10,400.....................................3170
Drakensberg..................................................10,700.....................................3261
Lereko or Sattima (Aberdare Range)........13,214......................................4028
Cameroon.......................................................13,370......................................4075
Elgon...............................................................14,152......................................4314
Karisimbi (Mfumbiro)..................................14,683......................................4475
Meru...............................................................14,955.......................................4558
Taggharat (Atlas).........................................15,000.......................................4572
Simens, Ethiopia...........................................15,160........................................4621
Ruwenzori.....................................................16,619........................................5065
Kenya............................................................17,007........................................5184
Kilimanjaro....................................................9,321..........................................588


Lakes Width in feet Width in meters

Chad......................................850.......................................259
Mai-Ndombe.......................1100......................................335
Rudolf...................................1250......................................381
Nyasa...................................1645......................................501
Albert...................................2028......................................618
Tanganyika ........................2624......................................800
Ngami..................................2950......................................899
Mweru.................................3000......................................914
Edward................................3004......................................916
Bangweulu..........................3700......................................1128
Victoria...............................3720......................................1134
Abaya.................................4200......................................1280
Kivu....................................4829......................................1472
Tsana..................................5690......................................1734
Naivasha............................6135.......................................1870

Islands

With one exception - Madagascar - the African islands are small. Madagascar, with an area of 229,820 square miles (595,230 km²), is, after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo, the fourth largest island on the Earth. It lies off the S.E. coast of the continent, from which it is separated by the deep Mozambique channel, 250 miles (400 km) wide at its narrowest point. Madagascar in its general structure, as in flora and fauna, forms a connecting link between Africa and southern Asia. East of Madagascar are the small islands of Mauritius and Réunion. Socotra lies E.N.E. of Cape Guardafui. Off the north-west coast are the Canary and Cape Verde archipelagoes. which, like some small islands in the Gulf of Guinea, are of volcanic origin.

Climate

Lying almost entirely within the tropics, and equally to north and south of the equator, Africa does not show excessive variations of temperature.

Great heat is experienced in the lower plains and desert regions of North Africa, removed by the great width of the continent from the influence of the ocean, and here, too, the contrast between day and night, and between summer and winter, is greatest. (The rarity of the air and the great radiation during the night cause the temperature in the Sahara to fall occasionally to freezing point.)

Farther south, the heat is to some extent modified by the moisture brought from the ocean, and by the greater elevation of a large part of the surface, especially in East Africa, where the range of temperature is wider than in the Congo basin or on the Guinea coast.

In the extreme north and south the climate is a warm temperate one, the northern countries being on the whole hotter and drier than those in the southern zone; the south of the continent being narrower than the north, the influence of the surrounding ocean is more felt.

The rainfall zones are, however, somewhat deflected from a due west-to-east direction, the drier northern conditions extending southwards along the east coast, and those of the south northwards along the west. Within the equatorial zone certain areas, especially on the shores of the Gulf of Guinea and in the upper Nile basin, have an intensified rainfall, but this rarely approaches that of the rainiest regions of the world. The rainiest district in all Africa is a strip of coastland west of Mount Cameroon, where there is a mean annual rainfall of about 390 in (9.91 m) as compared with a mean of 458 in (11.63 m) at Cherrapunji, in Meghalaya, India.

The two distinct rainy seasons of the equatorial zone, where the sun is vertical at half-yearly intervals, become gradually merged into one in the direction of the tropics, where the sun is overhead but once. Snow falls on all the higher mountain ranges, and on the highest the climate is thoroughly Alpine.

The countries bordering the Sahara are much exposed to a very dry wind, full of fine particles of sand, blowing from the desert towards the sea. Known in Egypt as the Khamsin, on the Mediterranean as the sirocco, it is called on the Guinea coast the Harmattan. This wind is not invariably hot; its great dryness causes so much evaporation that cold is not infrequently the result. Similar dry winds blow from the Kalahari Desert in the south. On the eastern coast the monsoons of the Indian Ocean are regularly felt, and on the Southeast hurricanes are occasionally experienced…

Yours Truly,
Ferdinand Che.