Explore the African Continent

In this article, we are going to learn some interesting facts about the Africa Continent, we will also see the geographical situations, tourist attraction points, facts and highlights of the African continent. So, let's start. Africa is the second largest continent on the planet. The African continent is also one of the most culturally, ecologically and geographically diverse on all seven continents.

Africa Continent and the Humans

Africa is sometimes called the mother continent or the cradle of mankind because it is the oldest inhabited continent on earth. This means that humans whose scientists call homo sapiens and their ancestors have lived on the African continent for over 5 million years. The African continent is the only place in the world where scientists have discovered fossils of humans and their ancestors through every stage of evolution. These ancestors include australopithecines, homo habilis and homo erectus an advanced relative to homo habilis that was able to walk upright.

Geography of Africa

Today Africa spans a huge geographical area of about 12 million square miles and is divided into 54 countries, most countries on any continent on the planet. It's home to over 3,000 indigenous peoples. Over 1,000 languages and has a total population of about 1.1 billion, roughly 15% of the population of the earth. The continent is surrounded almost entirely by water the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. This continent is divided in half almost equally by the equator and also includes the islands of Cape Verde Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Comoros. The terrain across this continent includes large mountains, tropical rainforests, grassy savannas and deserts.

Rivers, Mountains and Deserts

Africa is also home to one of the longest rivers in the world the Nile which is over 4,000 miles long. It runs south to north starting at Lake Victoria which is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world and ending at the Mediterranean Sea. Other cool geographical features include the Sahara Desert which is the largest hot desert in the world.

Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest point on the continent and the tallest volcano in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Because the African continent is so large and its land is so diverse there are lots of exciting attractions that bring tourists from all over the world to African countries.

Countries in the Africa Continent

On the easternmost part of the African mainland is a peninsula often referred to as the Horn of Africa. It got this name because the land formation resembles a horn. The largest country in the African continent is Algeria. Even though Algeria is the largest country by area, Nigeria is the most populated with 185 million people. The smallest country in this continent is Seychelles, which is a nation of 115 mostly uninhabited islands in the Indian Ocean directly east of the African continent. Other African countries include Ethiopia with the second highest population on the continent, and Egypt which acts as a land bridge between Africa and Southwest Asia is the size of the countries of France and Germany combined. Another country in Africa continent is Kenya, the safari capital of the world.

Some of the famous country names in Africa Continent:

No.	Country Name
1	Nigeria
2	Egypt
3	South Africa
4	Kenya
5	Morocco
6	Ghana
7	Ethiopia
8	Tanzania
9	Algeria
10	Uganda

Tourist Attractions in Africa Continent

One of the most famous tourist attractions in northern Africa is the pyramids at Giza near Cairo Egypt. These pyramids were built by the ancient Egyptians around 2600 B.C. from over 2.5 million blocks of limestone.

Can you imagine building such huge structures by hand and having them last so long? It's a pretty cool piece of history. At Volcanoes National Park in the Rwandan rainforest, you can see mountain gorillas or golden monkeys in the wild. If you happen to like, Waterfalls Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe would be amazing to visit, It's over twice the height and width of Niagara Falls in North America and is considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

Wildlife Africa

Africa is also home to many animals like Lions, Giraffes, zebras and Elephants. Every year there's a great migration or movement of animals travelling from Tanzania to Kenya in January and then from Kenya back to Tanzania in September.

World famous sites in Africa continent:

Site Name	Country
Great Pyramid of Giza	Egypt
Victoria Falls	Zambia/Zimbabwe
Serengeti National Park	Tanzania
Kruger National Park	South Africa
Mount Kilimanjaro	Tanzania
The Sahara Desert	Multiple Countries
Table Mountain	South Africa
Okavango Delta	Botswana
Valley of the Kings	Egypt
Ngorongoro Crater	Tanzania

Here's an interesting fact.

Which animal do you think is more likely to attack humans?

Answer: The correct answer is hippopotamus, more humans are injured or killed by hippos than any other animal in Africa.

FAQs about African Continent

Now that we've learned a little bit about the continent of Africa. Let's see some of the FAQs about the African continent.

Q. Africa is the largest continent in the world.

Answer: False, it's the second-largest. Asia is the largest continent in the world.

Q. Which is one of the longest rivers in the world?

Answer: Nile River

Q. Which country is the biggest buy area in Africa and which is the smallest?

Answer: The biggest is Algeria and the smallest is Seychelles.

Next time you look at a tall mountain or a river you can think of Mount Kilimanjaro or the Nile River. If you're taking a trip to the zoo you can visit some of the animals that are native to the African continent and maybe one day you can even visit this continent in real life. Hope you had a great learning with us. Visit us at informantra.com for thousands of resources and learnings.