Africa is the second largest continent after Asia. The continent is bounded on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the east by the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and on the south by the mingling waters of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean.
Africa’s total land area is approximately 11,724,000 square miles. Africa has 8 major physical regions:
The Sahara: The Sahara Desert located in Northern Africa is the world’s largest hot desert, it crosses the border of 11 nations While most of the desert is uninhabited. The Sahara divides the continent into north and sub Saharan Africa.
The Sahel: The Sahel is not a dessert but is related to the dessert. The Sahel is the transitional land between the Sahara desert in the north and the savanna in the south, countries of the Sahel include Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Mauritians, Mail, Burkina Faso, chad, Sudan and a small part of Southern Africa.
The Ethiopian highlands: The Ethiopian highlands covers much of Ethiopia and central Eritrea. They consist of the rugged western highlands and the more limited eastern highlands.
Savanna: The African savanna is composed mainly of grasses with scattered individual trees and shrubs. The savanna soil is very porous which allows grasses to thrive while other vegetation struggles. Savanna’s are home to a wide diversity of animals. Some countries in the savanna are Kenya, Tanzania, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Togo.
Swahili Coast: the Swahili coast is an 1,800 mile stretch of Kenyan and Tanzanian coastline. It is a coastal area of the Indian Ocean in east Africa inhabited by Swahili people. The Swahili people and their culture formed from a distinct mix of African and Arabs.
Rainforest: The African rainforest is a dense area of tall, mostly evergreen trees found in tropical regions with consistently heavy rainfalls. Africa has the second largest rainforest in the world.
African Great Lakes: The African Great Lakes are a series of lakes constituting the part of the rift valley lakes in and around the East African rift. They include lake Victoria and lake tanganyika, lake Malawi, lake turkana, lake Albert, lake kivu and lake Edward.
Southern Africa: Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the continent comprising the countries of Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
