Intro to Africa

Intro to Africa

Quick facts

•  There are 54 countries in Africa - and 9 territories -with a total of more than 1.1 billion people living on the continent, which is 15% of the world's total population

• Largest Country: Algeria. This country is among the ten largest countries in the world.

• Largest City: Lagos in Nigeria. With more than 21 million inhabitants, Lagos is also one of the biggest metropolitan cities in the world and is estimated to become the world's largest city by 2100.

Multiple Choice

Hot, dry grasslands with lots of wildlife located north and south of the equator.

• Sahara
• Sahel
• Savanna
• Tropical Rain Forest

Africa Geography

• Africa has eight major physical regions: the Sahara, the Sahel, the Ethiopian Highlands, the savanna, the Swahili Coast, the rain forest, the African Great Lakes, and Southern Africa.

• Some of these regions cover large bands of the continent, such as the Sahara and Sahel, while others are isolated areas, such as the Ethiopian Highlands and the Great Lakes

• Largest desert & lake---Sahara Desert & Lake Victoria

• Highest Mountain---Mt. Kilimanjaro

• Longest river---Nile River

The Sahara Desert

• The Sahara is the worlds largest hot desert, covering 8.5 million square kilometers (3.3 million square miles), about the size of the South American country of Brazil. Defining Africa's northern bulge, the Sahara makes up 25 percent of the continent.

• An oasis is a hub of water in the desert, often in the form of springs, wells, or irrigation systems. About 75 percent of the Saharas population lives in oases, which make up only 2,071 square kilometers (800 square miles) of the deserts vast area.

Multiple Choice

The Kalahari Desert is partially in

• Egypt
• Kenya
• Nigeria
• South Africa

The Kalahari Desert

• Temperatures in the Kalahari Desert are extreme, with summers being very hot while winter temperatures can go below zero degrees Celsius at night. A result of the Kalahari’s relatively high altitude and clear, dry air.

• The Kalahari desert is actually a semi-desert. The driest areas receive 4.3–7.9 in of rain per year.

• The Kalahari's wildlife has adapted to survive the arid conditions of the desert. The wetter north in Botswana has a greater variety of wildlife than the drier south.