Interesting Facts about Africa
- Africa is the second largest continent after Asia.
- Africa is also known as Dark continent.
- It is also second most populous continent in the world after Asia.
- Prince Henry, Portuguese explorer known as navigator, was the first European who explore Africa.
- The ancient name of Africa was Alkebulan means mother of mankind or Garden of Eden.
- It is the only continent which extent from the northern temperate zone to the southern temperate zone.
- It is the only continent through which the Tropic of cancer, The Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn pass.
- This continent covers 6% of earth’s total surface area and 20% of its land area.
- Total area of Africa is 30,370,000 km square.
- Total countries in this continent are 54 and there are 9 territories.
- Africa is surrounded by Mediterranean sea in the north, Isthmus of Suez and the red sea to the north east, Indian ocean to the south east, and Atlantic to the west.
- The Strait of Gibraltar, Mediterranean sea, Suez canal, red sea and Arabian sea separate it from Asia and Europe.
- World longest river Nile with total length of 6,852 km. flows through this continent of Africa and it originates from lake Victoria and drains its water in Mediterranean sea.
- Major rivers of this continent are Nile, Limpopo, Congo, Orange, Zambezi, Niger and Senegal.
- Sahara desert is the world’s largest hot desert with an area of 9,000,000km square. It spreads into the countries of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea Mauritanian, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia and Western Sahara.
- Victoria is the second largest freshwater lake in the world and it passes through Equator.
- Victoria fall is the largest waterfall in Africa and it is located on the Zimbabwe and Zambia border. It has a height of 355 feet.
- World’s Second highest waterfall – Tugela lies in this continent .
- Congo river is the most voluminous river of this continent that crosses the equator two times during its journey.
- Cairo, Lagos, Kinshasa, Johannesburg, Luanda, Khartoum, Dar-es-salaam, Abidjan, Alexandria, Nairobi, Cape Town, Kano, Dakar, Casablance, Addis Ababa are largest cities found in this continent.
- Ethiopia is the oldest country of Africa.
- Algeria is Africa’s largest country by area.
- Nigeria is Africa’s largest country by population.
- Seychelles in Indian ocean with an area of 451 km square is the smallest country in Africa.
- Largest city of Africa is Lagos in Nigeria.
- Madagascar in Indian ocean is the fourth largest island in the world after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo.
- Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and mount Kenya in Kenya, both are the highest peak in this continent and these two peaks are volcanic mountain.
- The cleanest city in Africa is Namibia.
- Largest mammals of this continent are the African elephant, giraffe, cheetah, hyena, leopard. It is also home to endangered animals white and black Rhinoceros.
- Kruger national park is one of the biggest national park and wildlife conservation in the world.
- World’s largest green canyon – Blyde river canyon.
- It is a country with the largest number of mega fauna species.
- Kano na di is the most polluted and driest city in Africa.
- There are six time zones and 13 standard time zones. Range of time zone varies between UTC/ GMT -1 to UTC/GMT +4.
- Nigeria is world’s fourth largest exporter of oil in the world. The continent has largest reserves of precious metals like gold, platinum and cobalt.
- World’s tallest and largest animals, both come from Africa they are giraffe and African elephant.
- Africa has pink lake in Senegal.