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• Second Largest continent in the world• 800 million people• 15% of it is considered desert• 10% of it is considered tropical rainforest• 35% of it is considered savanna/grasslands• Climates consist of Mediterranean,
mountain, tropical wet and dry, rainy and mild, wet and mild
Size and Climate
• 800 Ethnic Groups (this includes Asians, Europeans, and Arabs)
• 100 languages are spoken in Africa (40 of which have more than one million speakers)
• Over 40% of Africans practice a wide variety of traditional religions. (Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism are practiced in Africa)
Population and Diversity
• Following crops are the main ones grown in different regions of Africa – Rice, wheat, maize, root crops(yams, sweet potatoes), oil palm, tea, cocoa, coffee, wine, sugar, tobacco, cotton, sisal (fiber for making rope or twine)
Agricultural Diversity
Largest country – AlgeriaSmallest country – SeychellesLargest city – Cairo (9.2 million)Highest point – Mt. Kilimanjaro (19,340ft)Largest lake – Lake Victoria (second –largest
in the world)Deepest lake – Lake Tanganyika (second
deepest freshwater lake in the world after Lake Baikal)
Facts and Figures
Malaria – 90% of all malaria cases are in sub-Saharan Africa
3,000 children under the age of five die each day from malaria in Africa
1-5% of GDP in Africa covers costs of malaria control and lost labor days
17 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have died of AIDS
25 million people in Africa are HIV-positive12 million children have lost their parents to AIDS
Health
• Nile River – longest river in the world (4,132 miles) and Africa. Originates at Lake Victoria
• Great Rift Valley – 3,000 miles from Syria to Mozambique – two branches – the Eastern Rift and the Western Rift
Facts and Figures
Location•Which hemisphere is Africa located?
•What major bodies of water surround the continent of Africa?
Quiz time ….Which country is the only country to border both the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean?
Which country is the only country to border both the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean?
Morocco
South Africa
Cape of Good HopeCape Agulhas
Cape Agulhas – southernmost point of African continent and dividing line
between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans
Place (What makes Africa different from
other places?)
•What types of climate does Africa have?
•What types of physical features are there in Africa?
Physical features of Africa
Atlas Mountains
Sahara Desert
Kalahari Desert
Namib Desert
Horn of Africa
Great Rift
Valley
Sahel
Namib Desert
Stretching 1,200 miles in length, but averaging a width of only 70 miles, the Namib Desert is home to the highest sand dunes in the world. Nicknamed the
“world’s oldest desert”.
Dune 7, the highest sand dune in the world
• Dunes along the Namibian coast
Nile RiverNiger River
Congo RiverLake Victoria
Lake Tanganyika
Lake Nyasa
Major rivers and lakes
Zambezi River
Lake Tanganyika• Second largest lake of Africa• Longest lake of the world 481 miles• Deepest lake on the African continent• Second deepest in the world (Lake
Baikal in Russia is the deepest) 4,800• Oldest lake in Africa and perhaps in
the world
Victoria Falls Victoria Falls is twice as wide and twice as deep as Niagara
Falls
Thus creating the largest curtain of
water in the world!
However, Kilimanjaro may not always be snow-capped! The glaciers of Kilimanjaro are melting at an alarming rate!
Why? Humans … global warming, deforestation, and honey!
Tribal people collecting honey smoke the bees out of the hives, often starting fires. The loss of foliage reduces moisture in the air, thus reducing much
needed cloud cover, thus letting in more sunlight that melts more ice!
If the current rate of melting continues, scientists predict that the glaciers that have covered Kilimanjaro for over 12,000 years will be totally gone by
2020 – less than 15 years from now!
•Vast geological feature that runs north to south for 6,000 miles
•From Syria in Southwest Asia to Mozambique in East Africa
As the tectonic plates continue to break apart,
the rift will become bigger and bigger until finally breaking off from the rest of the continent of Africa … in
about 20 billion years! Thus,
creating a whole new island continent!
What is an enclave? A country that is entirely surrounded, or mostly surrounded, by another
country. Lesotho and Swaziland are examples.
Lesotho
Swaziland
So, what is an exclave? Territory of
a country that is
separated from the
main part of the country by foreign territory. Cabinda is an exclave of Angola.
Landlocked
Shut in completely by land … having no direct access to the sea …
Rwanda and Uganda are examples
• The world’s largest diamond was the Cullinan, found in South Africa in 1905. It weighed 3,106.75 carats uncut.
• With a population of more than 113 million, Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa and the 10th most populated in the world.
• An African elephant possesses such manual dexterity in his-her trunk that he/she can actually turn the pages of a book with it.
Miscellaneous
• An elephant can weight up to 6 – 7 tons and has no natural enemies
• An elephant can drink up to 160 liters of water per day and a mature elephant can carry up to 6.8 liters of water in its trunk
Miscellaneous
• South Africa has a penguin colony• The largest seal colony in the southern
hemisphere is at Cape Cross in Namibia• The world’s biggest frog is found in Cameroon –
the “Goliath Frog” – body can be as long as a foot
• The Nile crocodile is Africa’s largest living reptile• The African elephant is the largest living land
mammal
Miscellaneous
Did you know that the tongue of a giraffe can be as long as 45 centimeters?
The tallest animal on earth is the giraffeThe Gorilla is the largest of the living
primatesThe cheetah is the fastest land animal (70
mph)The world’s largest and heaviest beetle, the
Goliath Beetle, is found in tropical Africa. It can reach a length of 5 inches and weigh up to ¼ lb
Miscellaneous
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