Africa: Fact at a glance

Shakeel Anwar

27-JAN-2016 16:46

Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most-populous continent. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.

Jagranjosh

Instant Fact

Largest Agglomeration	Egypt - Cairo
Major Island	Madagascar
Major River	Nile, (Other important rivers: Congo, Niger, Zambezi)
Longest Man-Made	River Libya Great Man Made River Project
Major Lake	Victoria, 69,500 km2 (Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania)
Longest Freshwater Lake	Tanganyika (32,900 km2) 676 km long, max 72 km wide, (Congo DR Tanzania). Lake Tanganyika is also the world's second deepest lake with a maximum of 1435 m.
Largest Desert	Sahara, North Africa, Kalahari, south-western Africa
Main Language Families	Over 1000 languages. The 240 Afro-Asiatic languages throughout East Africa,North Africa, the Sahel. The 100 Nilo-Saharan languages (30 million) in Chad, Ethiopia,Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and northern Tanzania. The Niger-Congo (and Banthu) Saharan Africa. Probably; the largest language family in the world in terms of different languages. The 50 Khoisan languages in Southern Africa. The Khoi and San peoples are considered the original inhabitants of this part of Africa.
Main Religions	Approximately 46% of all Africans are Christians and another 40% are Muslims. Roughly 12% percent of Africans primarily follow indigenous African religions.
Largest Cities	Lagos (Nigeria); Cairo (Egypt); Kinshasa, (Conqo-Kinshasa); Alexandria (Egypt); Casablanca (Morocco); Abidjan (Cot d'ivoire); Addis Ababa (Ethiopa); Giza (Egypt); Algiers (Algeria); Nairobi (Kenya); Dakar (Senegal).
Highest Point	Tanzania - Mt Kilimanjaro 5895 m
Lowest Point	Djibouti; Lake Assai