Africa, the second-largest continent after Asia, covers approximately 11,677,000 square miles, or nearly one-fourth of the planet's total land area. On the west and south, it has the Atlantic Ocean, on the east, the Indian Ocean and Red Sea and on the north, the Mediterranean Sea. It has the EQUATOR going through it and is located in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Madagascar is the largest island, located in the Indian Ocean off the southeast coast.
With the exception of the Mediterranean, the African coastline is mainly flat with few indentations. The majority of the continent is made up of an undulating plateau that is about 2,000 feet above sea level on average. The Atlas Mountains are located in the northwest, the Ruwenzori Mountains are located in the east, and the Drakensberg Mountains are located in the southeast. The majority of South Africa is covered by the High Veld, a dry plateau. The highest region of Africa is called the Eastern Highlands, which average over 5,000 feet in height and include Mount Kilimanjaro (see KILIMANJARO, MOUNT), the highest peak on the continent.
Africa has many different climates, although being primarily in the Tropics. The SAHARA DESERT and the Kalahari Desert in the south are examples of arid areas. The arid areas are bordered by open savannas. Dense jungle can be found in the western equatorial regions, where there is a lot of rainfall.
In Africa, there are thought to be 3,000 ethnic groups that speak more than 1,000 languages. Native Negroids were hunter-gatherers who frequently lived in towns or tribes. Some of these tribes eventually grew into mighty kingdoms. Ancient Egyptians, who cultivated in the Nile Valley and delta, were the most powerful and influential African people. Native populations were displaced north of the Sahara by Arabic immigrants from the east and Berbers, a non-Arabic people believed to have originated in the eastern Mediterranean. Many different ethnic groups established strong kingdoms in other parts of Africa, including those of Ghana in the fifth century, Mali in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and Songhai in the fifteenth and sixteenth.
The discovery of the coastal regions of North Africa, which are divided from Europe by the 36-mile-wide Strait of Gibraltar (see GIBRALTAR, STRAIT OF) in the northwest and actually connected to Asia by the Sinai Peninsula in the northeast, is a crucial part of the history of the entire Mediterranean region, which saw extensive contacts between ancient peoples. Other coastal regions were mapped during the European Age of Exploration in the 15th century. However, until the late 19th century, most of Africa's interior remained a mystery to people other than its native inhabitants. As a result, Africa earned the nickname "Dark Continent" throughout history.
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