Africa is the mother continent for us as Africans, and it represents one of the three continents that make up the ancient world. In terms of size, it represents the second place among the world's continents, with an area of about 11.1 million square miles, or 30.4 million square kilometers. Thus, it occupies 20% of the land area.
Astrological position
The continent of Africa extends between latitudes 37 north and latitude 34 south (north and south of the equator), and its lands are almost equally distributed between the two hemispheres, and it extends between longitudes 51.2 east of Greenwich and 18.30 west of Greenwich
The extension of Africa between latitudes 37 north and 35 south of the equator had an impact on its climatic conditions. The sun's rays perpendicular to many parts of the continent on its journey north to the Tropic of Cancer and the Southern Tropic, which causes a great rise in temperatures.
Geographical location
Africa represents a middle location between the continents of the world, which made it a transit area between East and West and the trade activity between them. Africa is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea to the east, and the waters of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans to the south.
Detecting the continent
The African continent has enjoyed many efforts to reveal its regions and remove their ambiguities from ancient times to modern times. Europeans called it the dark continent or the unknown continent because their knowledge of it was very little. Several obstacles contributed to the delay in discovering the continent:
1- The African desert in the north (the largest desert in the world), where it stood as a barrier separating the north on the one hand and the west and south on the other, and then Africa lived in semi-isolation
2- The inhospitable nature of the coasts of Africa through their lack of meander, high humidity and unhealthy climate.
3- The presence of many waterfalls, which are considered most of the lower parts of African rivers, which lost their role as an easy and safe way to the interior in areas that lack other transportation methods
Surface and terrain
First: the structure
Most of the structure of the African continent consists of plateaus famous for their breadth and consistency in height across large areas. The plateaus constitute more than three-fifths of the area of the African continent and are more than 400 meters above sea level. The plateaus are distributed as follows:
1- The North African plateau, which includes: the Sahara, which is one of the most widespread deserts in the world. The surface of the plateau here is flat, except for some low basins and high rings. It descends to the north until it ends at the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
2- The Mauritanian plateau, which is of medium height, is characterized by its surface uniformity and uniformity to some extent, and some mountain blocks consisting of hard rocks are spread over it.
3- Fouta Djallon plateau, which occupies the largest part of the area of the State of Guinea. This plateau forms the water dividing line between the three great rivers in the west of the continent: Niger - Senegal – Guinea
4- The Somali plateau, which is part of Upper Africa, and consists of sandstone formations that overlap the base rocks.
5- The Southern Plateau extends in the south of the Congo Basin and the Plateau of the Equatorial Lakes. It includes the Kalahari Basin and descends in general to the north to the Zambezi River in Zambia and Angola. It also descends to the east and west, and this plateau is surrounded by the Drakensberg Mountains.
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