About Africa Physical Map
This Africa physical map shows the physical features of the continent, including the Sahara Desert in North Africa and the Sahel, as well as the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. The map also outlines all of the continent’s mountain ranges and highest peaks, including the Atlas Mountains in North Africa, the high plateaus and volcanic peaks of the Ethiopian Highlands, and the volcanic summits of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya.
This physical map Africa of highlights the rivers of Africa, including the world’s longest river, the Nile River, which flows north to the Mediterranean Sea. Other major rivers of Africa include the Congo River, Niger River and Zambezi River. Africa also has several of the world’s largest lakes including Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi. The Congo Basin, the world’s second largest rainforest, is also marked.
The Africa physical map features Africa in its full geographical extent, along with the surrounding oceans, seas, and islands. To the west lies the Atlantic Ocean, to the east the Indian Ocean, to the north the Mediterranean Sea and to the northeast the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Various coastal structures and islands (including Madagascar) are clearly marked. The elevation layer renders the various physical characteristics and land features of Africa, with the Great Rift Valley standing out conspicuously.
Africa’s Physical Geography
Africa is the world’s second-largest continent with an area of approximately 30.37 million square kilometers (11.7 million square miles), covering about 20% of the single planet’s surface area. It is situated in the Eastern and Northern parts of the sphere, extending over most of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres on either side of the Equator. The continent of related dimensions includes a world of contrasts. Much of the area is a scorching desert, hot jungles, high plateau regions, deep rift valleys, and towering mountain chains. In contrast to other Continents, much of Africa is composed of Precambrian rocks of age prior to 540 million years. Although there have been a few tectonic events in recent years, the landscape of the Continent has been shaped to create a much “plateau-like” landscape across much of its area. Because of this, Africa is known as the “plateau continent”.
Major Landforms and Relief Features
Africa has many plateaus in which high terrains extend above the coastal plain to form broad or flat plateaus or mesas, as opposed to one great mountain system as found in Asia or South America. Although there are no peaks above 5000 m in Africa, there are several highlands that are among the highest in the world. These include the Atlas Mountains of northwestern Africa, which cut across northern Morocco, much of Algeria, and northern Tunisia, forming a dramatic, western boundary of the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean coast. The highest highlands are the Ethiopian Highlands (also known as the Achaf High Plateaus), volcanic in origin and forming a sharp divide between plains to the west and the Rift Valley to the east. East Africa includes the East African Highlands, as well as highland valleys, volcanoes, and ridges trending from north to south.
East Africa is home to some of Africa’s natural wonders. One of the most notable are the hundreds of kilometres of deep valleys and volcanoes that make up the Great Rift Valley, a large tectonic trench that runs from the Indian Ocean for over 6,000 kilometres to Mozambique. In Tanzania two of Africa’s highest mountains tower above the landscape. The highest mountain in Africa is 5,895 m (19,341 ft) high Kilimanjaro, the highest volcanoes in Africa, while 5,199 m (17,057 ft) high Mount Kenya, the second highest volcanoes, rises alone above its surrounding plateau. The steep slopes of these two inactive volcanoes support some of Africa’s most beautiful scenery. To the south of Mount Kenya is Barginza mountain which at 2,745 m (9,006 ft) is the highest peak on the Southern rim of the Great Rift Valley in Tanzania. Lake Malawi and Lake Victoria are two of the valley’s longer lakes, which stretch for hundreds of kilometers.
Deserts and Arid Regions
Africa has a large portion of its land surface in the form of desert. Much of North Africa and southern Africa is arid or semi-arid, with desert extending from the Sahara Desert in the north (covering an area of around 9 230 000 km2, making it the world’s largest hot desert) south down through the Sahel. The Sahara Desert is composed of ergs (large dune fields), hamadas (rocky plateaus) and regs (gravel plains). South of the Sahara, a similar transitional zone exists, commonly referred to as the Sahel. The Sahel is particularly sensitive to any change.
The Kalahari Desert of southern Africa covers almost 360 000 km2 of southern Botswana, northwestern Namibia and parts of South Africa. Although not technically a desert in terms of rainfall, it is commonly referred to as such and is distinguished by sandy soils and a variety of xerophytic vegetation. In marked contrast to the Kalahari, the Namib Desert is one of the world’s oldest desert environments. It lies along the arid, spectacular and almost unbroken Atlantic coast of Namibia, from which a broad coastal plain of high dunes precipitously drops to the base of a steep escarpment.
Rivers, Lakes, and Drainage Systems
The many rivers of Africa perform important functions in the environment, agriculture and human settlements across the continent. The Nile, the world’s longest river at approximately 6,650 km (4,130 miles) long, flows northwards from the highlands of Ethiopia, as well as from the main sources near Lake Victoria, to reach the Mediterranean Sea. The Congo River, Africa’s second-longest river at approximately 4,700 km (2,920 miles) long, flows westwards from the great Congo Basin and is the second-largest volume of water discharging into the world’s oceans, after the Amazon.
The Congo River, flowing through Africa’s central region, is the continent’s largest river and its delta is a large freshwater swamp. Another major river is the Niger River of West Africa which forms a large inland delta in Mali before emptying into the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean. The river Zambezi of southern Africa has Victoria Falls, one of the world’s largest waterfalls. Africa is home to the African Great Lakes which include Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa and the source of the Nile River, Lake Tanganyika, the second deepest lake in the world at 1,470 m, and Lake Malawi.
Climate Zones and Vegetation Patterns
Africa's diverse geography correlates with the many different climates found on the continent. Near the Equator the tropics reign, specifically within the Congo Basin as a tropical rainforest climate. North of the Equator there are vast numbers of savannas, some covered in short grass and others with thick, thorny bushes and tree groups. South of the Equator the climate is more temperate and corresponds to grasslands and open plains that have many different seasons.
Africa is a highly diverse continent ecologically. While much of the north and south of the continent is arid and semi-arid, the northern coast of Africa and the south western tip of South Africa have Mediterranean climates influencing the varied different vegetation types, soils and human uses of land across the continent.
Coastal Features and Surrounding Water Bodies
Africa borders the Mediterranean Sea, Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean as well as the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden bordering Asia. Much of the coastline is straight and featureless with few deep natural harbours. This has influenced both trade and settlement patterns.
Africa’s coastal region includes the entire Western and Indian coastlines from the Gulf of Guinea off West Africa to the Horn of Africa on the East African continent. Madagascar, an island with the world’s fourth largest land area, lies off the southeastern coast of Africa. The geography of the region is unique and its natural resources and history are unparalleled.