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Africa is the Sahara's oceans of sand, the high and snow-clad Kilimanjaro,
impassable jungle and endless savannas.
Egypt's pyramids and temples testify that the world's first writing culture
originated in Africa. Modern urban life gallopes into cosmopolitan Nairobi,
while traditional patriarchal and matriarchal cultures still live with nature as
their closest ally.
Surface: 30 million kmē
Population: 1.1 billion
Largest countries (by population)
- Nigeria - 182 million
- Ethiopia - 99 million
- Egypt - 88 million
- DR Congo - 79 million
- South Africa - 54 million
The marvelous Africa
According to
AbbreviationFinder.org, Africa is the world's second largest continent, and perhaps the most diverse.
900 million people populate the continent from Pharaoh's Egypt to beautiful Cape
Town at the foot of Table Mountain in South Africa; from hip Senegal in the west
to east-west Kenya, breaking all records in both wildlife and tribal people.
Exotic Africa has always inspired the imagination of Europeans and attracted
adventurers from curious Livingstone to colonial masters in search of cheap
labor, cheap raw materials and of course power and prestige. The ancient Greeks
called everything south of the Sahara Ethiopia, and the vast amount of unknown
land elicited notions of eerie beasts and distinctive, human-like creatures.
Traveling in Africa
One of the classic ways to travel in Africa is safari. Nothing beats seeing
the wildlife, which we recognize from the zoo and the animal programs on
television, in their natural surroundings. A four-wheel drive jeep between
giraffes, gnomes, zebras and the famous "Big Five" - lion, leopard, elephant,
rhino and buffalo - is the ideal way to experience the magnificent African
nature and guarantee an unforgettable holiday. Eastern and Southern Africa with
countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa offer plenty of
exciting national parks where the many different species of animals are well
represented, so there are good chances to see them all.
For those who are interested in history and highly developed ancient
civilizations, Egypt is a given destination where you can enter Cleopatra,
Tutanchamon and the Great Sphinx of Giza. All this can be experienced on a round
trip, possibly in combination with a Nile cruise.
But the African continent, of course, has much more to offer, including the
beautiful, palm-lined sandy beaches of the Seychelles and Kenya's coastline to
the Indian Ocean. And golf trips, of course. Here, especially South Africa with
its mild climate and fine golf courses is a good destination.
Africa - climate
Most of Africa has tropical climate. North and south of the broad tropic zone
around the equator, the climate is subtropical; the highest mountains in i.a.
East Africa has a temperate climate.
Africa is thus a warm continent; In most places, it is not the temperature
that limits plant growth, but the rainfall, and here there are very large
differences. On west-facing coasts of Central Africa, on the south coast of West
Africa and Madagascar's east-facing slopes, annual rainfall reaches over 3000
mm, while in the driest desert areas it is below 100 mm.
In large parts of Africa, however, it is not the average annual rainfall that
is interesting, but rather the distribution of the rainfall by season and not
least the large variations from year to year. Large parts of the continent are
thus characterized by recurring periods of drought: at unpredictable intervals,
the rain fails completely. An average annual rainfall of 400 mm in the Sahel
region can, as a background, have many years largely without rainfall and other
years with perhaps 1000 mm. It is also characteristic that there can be very
large and entirely local differences in the individual year.
Climate data for Africa thus covers a great deal of variation, which is based
on the overall weather systems that characterize the climate. In particular,
it is the intertropical convergence zone (ITK) that is a decisive factor
for the climate from South Africa to Sahara and from Senegal to Somalia. ITK is
the area where two warm winds blow against each other (converge); the
air rises, cools, and convective rainfall forms. ITK follows the Sun's annual
course; in December at the winter solstice it lies slightly north of the
southern circle and in June correspondingly slightly south of the northern
circle. This explains, for example, the rainy season. Duration in West Africa:
On the Guinea coast, the rain comes early (March), the rainy season is long
(possibly with a break midway when ITK is farthest to the north), the rainfall
is plentiful, and there is great rainfall. Further north, in the Sahel, the rain
comes late (June), the rainy season is short, and certain years it fails
completely.
In East Africa, the climate is also affected by monsoon winds that change
seasonally. The great summer rainfall (November to March) in Madagascar is due
to humid east winds that precipitate from the warm Indian Ocean during the
meeting with the continent.
North Africa and southernmost South Africa lie in the subtropical winter
rainfall area with mild, humid winters and dry, hot summers. Here, rainfall is
especially associated with the rainfall associated with the east-facing frontal
systems across the Atlantic, and the amount of precipitation decreases to the
east. Areas in Libya, Egypt and the interior of South Africa are thus virtually
free of precipitation, and there are also some of the world's hottest places. |
