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At 30,065,000 sq km and with a coastline of 30,539 km, Africa is the world's second largest continent. Africa is home to fifty four countries and has an overall population of around one billion people.
The African continent is home to the world's largest desert, The Sahara, the world's longest river, The Nile, the world's largest tropical lake, Lake Victoria, the world's widest waterfall, The Victoria Falls, the world's largest lagoon, the Crystal Lagoon in Egypt, the world's largest natural sinkhole, the Qattara Dpression, also in Egypt and the world's largest oasis or wadi, also located in Egypt.
Africa is also home to the world's second largest lake at 68,800 square kilometers, Lake Victoria, and the world's eighth highest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro.
Africa's highest point is situated on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, at 5,895 meters high, and the continent's lowest point is located at Lac Assal in Djibouti, at 153 meters below sea level.
Africa's landmass is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to it's west, the Indian Ocean to it's east, the Mediterranean Sea to it's north and the Red Sea to it's north east.
Other large bodies of water which surround Africa are the Mozambique Channel, located in the Indian Ocean and situated between the coast of Mozambique in south, east Africa and the island of Madagascar, and located in the Atlantic Ocean, situated off the continent's western coast, is the large, natural bay known as the Gulf of Guinea.
Africa's largest country is Algeria at 2.3 million square kilometers and the continent's smallest country is the island nation of the Seychelles at 451 square kilometers.
The smallest country on the African mainland is Gambia at 11,295 square kilometers.
Africa has seventeen land locked countries, the largest number of any of the continents, they are - Burkina Faso, Botswana, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Lesotho, Mali, Malawi, Niger, Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the largest of them all, the Democratic Republic of Congo, at 2,345,410 square kilometers.
The African continent is home to three monarchies, the Kingdom of Swaziland, the Kingdom of Lesotho and the Kingdom of Morocco.
Africa controls six island nations, Cape Verde and Sao Tome & Principe located in the Atlantic Ocean and the Comoros Islands, Madagascar, Mauritius and the Seychelles all located in the Indian Ocean.
The largest of these island nations is Madagascar which covers an area of 587,041 square kilometers and has a population of 14.7 million people.
The smallest island nation is the Seychelles, which covers just 451 square kilometers and has a population of 75,000 people, making it the smallest of Africa's nations.
The largest city on the African continent is Egypt's capital city, Cairo, pictured above, which covers an area of 453 square kilometers and has a population of 9.1 million people.
The African continent, including her island nations, covers 6% of the world's surface or 20.4% of the world's total land area.
It's people make up 15% of the world's population, who between them speak over one thousand languages.
The predominant religions of Africa are Islam, with a following of around 40% of the population and Christianity with a following of around 45% of the population.
Africa is the poorest and least developed of the world's continents, with it's three richest nations being Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria.
Africa spans five time zones (UTC - 1, UTC, UTC + 1, UTC + 2 and UTC + 3) and covers eleven climatic zones.
The continent has it's own patron saint, St Moses the Black whose feast day is held on the 28th of August.
Shown below is a political map of Africa folowed by a list of Africa's fifty four nations featuring land area, approximate population, capital city, official language, currency, internet TLD and international telephone calling code.
( * ) Denotes an offshore island nation.
ALGERIA - 2,381,741 sq km - 28,548,000 - Algiers - Arabic - Dinar - .dz - 213.
ANGOLA - 1,246,700 sq km - 11,072,000 - Luanda - Portugese - Kwanza - .ao - 244.
BENIN - 112,620 sq km - 5,561,000 - Porto Novo - French - Franc - .bj - 229.
BOTSWANA - 581,370 sq km - 1,456,000 - Gabarone - English - Pula - .bw - 267.
BURKINA FASO - 274,200 sq km - 10,200,000 - Ouagadougou - French - Franc - .bf - 226.
BURUNDI - 27,835 sq km - 5,982,000 - Bujumbura - Kirundi - Franc - .bi - 257.
CAMEROON - 475,442 sq km - 13,277,000 - Yaounde - French - Franc - .cm - 237.
( * ) CAPE VERDE - 4,033 sq km - 392,000 - Praia - Portugese - Escudo - .cv - 238.
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC - 622,436 sq km - 3,315,000 - Bangui - French - Franc - .cf - 236.
CHAD - 1,284,000 sq km - 6,361,000 - Ndjamena - Arabic - Franc - .td - 235.
( * ) COMOROS - 1,862 sq km - 653,000 - Moroni - French - Franc - .km - 269.
CONGO - 342,000 sq km - 2,590,000 - Brazzaville - French - Franc - .cg - 242.
CONGO DEM' REP' - 2,345,410 sq km - 43,901,000 - Kinshasa - French - Franc - .cd - 243.
COTE D'IVOIRE - 322,463 sq km - 14,230,000 - Yamoussoukro - French - Franc - .ci - 225.
DJIBUTI - 23,200 sq km - 577,000 - Djibuti - Somali - Franc - .dj - 253.
EGYPT - 1,000,250 sq km - 59,226,000 - Cairo - Arabic - Pound - .eg - 20.
EQUITORIAL GUINEA - 28,051 sq km - 400,000 - Malabo - Spanish - Franc - .gq - 240.
ERITREA - 117,400 sq km - 3,531,000 - Asmara - Arabic - Birr - .er - 291.
ETHIOPIA - 1,133,880 sq km - 56,677,000 - Addis Ababa - Amharic - Birr - .et - 251.
GABON - 267,667 sq km - 1,320,000 - Libreville - French - Franc - .ga - 241.
GAMBIA - 11,295 sq km - 1,118,000 - Banjul - English - Dalasi - .gm - 220.
GHANA - 238,537 sq km - 17,453,000 - Accra - English - Cedi - .gh - 233.
GUINEA - 245,857 sq km - 6,700,000 - Conakry - French - Franc - .gn - 224.
GUINEA - BISSAU - 36,125 sq km - 1,073,000 - Bissau - Portugese - Peso - .gw - 245.
KENYA - 582,646 sq km - 30,522,000 - Nairobi - Swahili - Shilling - .ke - 254.
LESOTHO - 30,355 sq km - 2,050,000 - Maseru - English - Loti - .ls - 266.
LIBERIA - 111,369 sq km - 2,760,000 - Monrovia - English - Dollar - .lr - 231.
LIBYA - 1,759,540 sq km - 5,407,000 - Tripoli - Arabic - Dinar - .ly - 218.
( * ) MADAGASCAR - 587,041 sq km - 14,763,000 - Antanarivo - Malagasy / French - Franc - .mg - 261.
MALAWI - 118,484. sq km - 9,788,000 - Lilongwe - English - Kwacha - .mw - 265.
MALI - 1,240,140 sq km - 10,795,000 - Bamako - French - Franc - .ml - 223.
MAURITANIA - 1,030,700 sq km - 2,284,000 - Nouakchott - Arabic - Ougulya - .mr - 222.
( * ) MAURITIUS - 2,040 sq km - 1,122,000 - Port Louis - French - Rupee - .mu - 230.
MOROCCO - 446,550 sq km - 27,111,000 - Rabat - Arabic - Dirham - .ma - 212.
MOZAMBIQUE - 799,380 sq km - 17,423,000 - Maputo - Portugese - Metical - .mz - 258.
NAMIBIA - 824,292 sq km - 1,540,000 - Windhoek - English - Dollar - .na - 264.
NIGER - 1,267,000 sq km - 9,151,000 - Niamey - French - Franc - .ne - 227.
NIGERIA - 923,768 sq km - 111,721,000 - Abuja - English - Naira - .ng - 234.
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH SUDAN - 619,745 sq km - Nine million - Juba - English - .sd - 249.
RWANDA - 26,338. sq km - 7,952,000 - Kigali - French - Franc - .rw - 250.
( * ) SAO TOME & PRINCIPE - 964 sq km - 127,000 - Sao Tome - Portugese - Dobra - .st - 239.
SENEGAL - 196,720 sq km - 8,347,000 - Dakar - French - Franc - .sn - 221.
( * ) SEYCHELLES - 455 sq km - 75,000 - Victoria - English - Rupee - .sc - 248.
SIERRA LEONE - 71,740 sq km - 4,509,000 - Freetown - English - Leone - .sl - 232.
SOMALIA - 637,657 sq km - 9,250,000 - Mogadishu - Somali - Shilling - .so - 252.
SOUTH AFRICA - 1,219,080 sq km - 41,244,000 - Pretoria - Afrikaans - Rand - .za - 27.
SUDAN - 1,886,068 sq km - 28,098,000 - Khartoum - Arabic.- Dinar - .sd - 249.
SWAZILAND - 17,364. sq km - 908,000 - Mbabane - English - Emalangeni - .sz - 268.
TANZANIA - 945,087 sq km - 30,337,000 - Dodoma - Swahili - Shilling - .tz - 255.
TOGO - 56,785 sq km - 4,138,000 - Lome - French - Franc - .tg - 228.
TUNISIA - 164,150 sq km - 8,896,000 - Tunis - Arabic - Dinar - .tn - 216.
UGANDA - 241,038 sq km - 19,848,000 - Kampala - English - Shilling - .ug - 256.
ZAMBIA - 752,614 sq km - 9,373,000 - Lusaka - English - Kwacha - .zm - 260.
ZIMBABWE - 390,759 sq km - 11,526,000 - Harare - English - Dollar - .zw - 263.
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