Africa

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Text Box: Nearly three-quarters of the total area of Africa lies within the tropics, so that there is almost perpetual summer with definite seasons of rain and drought. The variations in climate are caused by prevailing winds and height. Mounts Ruwenzori and Kenya, almost on the equator, are covered with perpetual snow for 600-900 m/1,960-2,950 ft downwards from their summits, and there is also perpetual snow on many peaks in Ethiopia. Many mountain slopes are very fertile, yielding different vegetation according to altitude. The prevailing winds are from the Northeast and the Southeast. The north-easterly winds, having come across Asia, bring no rain to north Africa. The south-easterly winds bring moisture to coastal districts, but it falls as rain on the mountains and does not reach the interior, hence the Kalahari Desert. The region of the tropical rains extends from 18° N to 20° S. Text Box: Africa has very few islands, and they are all small with the exception of Madagascar (590,500 sq km/228,000 sq mi)es, which is one of the largest in the world. In the North Atlantic are the Madeira Islands, the Canary Islands, and the Cape Verde Islands. Bioko and Annobón are two volcanic islands in the Gulf of Guinea; other nearby islands are São Tomé and Príncipe. St Helena and Ascension are solitary rocks in the Atlantic. To the east in the Indian Ocean are Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion, the Seychelles, British Indian Ocean Territory, Comoros, and Zanzibar. Further north are Socotra and Kamaran, and in the Red Sea are Perim and Dahlak.

Text Box: There are two great deserts in Africa: the Sahara, the largest in the world, which is in the north, and the Kalahari, a sandy rainless region, which is in the south. The Libyan and Nubian deserts are continuations of the Sahara. As well as extensive areas of sand, the Sahara and the Kalahari have thousands of square kilometres of rocky expanses with scrubland that can support small antelopes, ostriches, and camels. Text Box: The official languages are Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, Siswati, Tshivenda and Xitsonga. The African continent is home to 54 countries and more than 800 million people. Sub-Saharan Africa comprises 48 countries, and North Africa comprises 6 countries. Text Box: Africa is a large continent. Africa is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea in the north, by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, and by the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea in the east. Its greatest length from N to S is 8,000 km/5,000miles.