Mountains, rivers, deserts, plains

Geography of Africa

The second-largest continent by area, the second-largest by population, and the most varied by climate. Africa stretches 8,000 km from Cape Agulhas to Cap Blanc, and the same again from Cape Verde to the Horn.

Four facts that shape everything

Two oceans, two seas

Atlantic Ocean to the west, Indian Ocean to the east. The Red Sea and the Mediterranean cap the north. The continent is bracketed by water on every side except the Sinai Peninsula.

The Great Rift Valley

A 6,000 km tear in the Earth's crust from the Levant to Mozambique. Defines East African geography — the Rift lakes, the East African volcanoes, the Afar Triangle.

Crosses the equator twice

The equator runs through Gabon, Republic of Congo, DRC, Uganda, Kenya and Somalia. The Tropic of Cancer crosses the Sahara; the Tropic of Capricorn crosses the Kalahari.

Tectonic future

The Somali plate is slowly separating from the rest of Africa along the East African Rift. In ~10 million years, Africa will split into two continents.

The high places

Africa’s mountains punch above their reputation. Five peaks top 5,000 m, three carry equatorial glaciers, and the continent’s defining tear — the Great Rift Valley — runs for 6,000 km from the Levant to Mozambique.

Mountain	Country	Height	Note
Mount Kilimanjaro	Tanzania	5,895 m	Highest free-standing mountain on Earth and the roof of Africa.
Mount Kenya	Kenya	5,199 m	Volcanic peak with twin glaciated summits (Batian and Nelion).
Rwenzori (Margherita)	Uganda / DRC	5,109 m	The 'Mountains of the Moon' — equatorial glaciers on the Albertine Rift.
Mount Meru	Tanzania	4,566 m	Active stratovolcano; classic warm-up for Kilimanjaro.
Ras Dashen	Ethiopia	4,533 m	Highest peak in the Simien Mountains.
Mount Stanley	Uganda / DRC	5,109 m	Holds the equatorial glaciers of the Rwenzori range.
Toubkal	Morocco	4,167 m	Highest peak in North Africa, in the High Atlas.
Drakensberg (Thabana Ntlenyana)	Lesotho	3,482 m	Southern Africa's highest peak.

The great rivers

Three of the world’s ten longest rivers are African. The Nile is the longest of all; the Congo is the deepest. Together they drain a continent and define its civilizations.

Nile

6,650 km

The world's longest river. Drains 11 countries from Lake Victoria and Ethiopia to the Mediterranean.

Congo

4,700 km

Africa's second-longest and the world's deepest. Drains the Congo Basin rainforest.

Niger

4,180 km

Loops north into the Sahara, then south through Mali, Niger and Nigeria to the Atlantic.

Zambezi

2,574 km

Crosses six countries. Drops over Victoria Falls and feeds Lake Kariba.

Orange

2,200 km

The longest river entirely within Southern Africa.

Limpopo

1,750 km

The 'great grey-green greasy Limpopo' (Kipling) — the South Africa/Zimbabwe border river.

The Rift Valley lakes and beyond

Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest. Tanganyika is the deepest. Malawi has more fish species than any other lake on Earth. The Rift Valley lakes alone hold a sizeable fraction of the planet’s freshwater.

Lake Victoria

68,800 km²

Africa's largest lake by area. Source of the White Nile. Shared by Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.

Lake Tanganyika

32,900 km²

World's second-deepest and second-oldest lake. Endemic cichlids by the hundreds.

Lake Malawi

29,500 km²

Africa's third-largest lake. Home to more fish species than any other lake on Earth.

Lake Chad

Shrinking, ~1,300 km²

Once the size of an inland sea, now 90% smaller than in the 1960s due to drought and abstraction.

Lake Turkana

6,400 km²

The world's largest desert lake. Crocodile-rich and entirely volcanic.

Lake Kariba

5,580 km²

Largest man-made reservoir by volume. On the Zambezi between Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The dry places

Roughly 40% of the African landmass is desert or semi-desert. The Sahara — over nine million km² — is the world’s largest hot desert. The Namib is its oldest.

Sahara

9.2 million km²

Larger than the contiguous USA. The world's largest hot desert.

Kalahari

900,000 km²

Semi-arid sandveld across Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. Surprisingly green in the wet season.

Namib

81,000 km²

The world's oldest desert (55+ million years). Coastal fog sustains its bizarre endemic life.

Danakil

150,000 km²

One of the hottest inhabited places on Earth (50°C+ in summer). Volcanic, salt-flat, sub-sea-level.

Climate zones

The equator runs through the middle of the continent, so climate is symmetric north and south — humid tropical at the centre, savanna belts on either side, hot desert beyond, and Mediterranean climates at the extreme north and south tips.

Mediterranean

Cape Town & Atlas coast

Warm dry summers, mild wet winters.

Hot desert

Sahara, Namib, Kalahari edges

Extreme diurnal range, low rainfall, big dunes.

Tropical savanna

Southern Africa, East Africa, Sahel

Wet/dry seasonal — the classic safari belt.

Tropical rainforest

Congo Basin, West Africa coast

Hot, humid, rain almost year-round.

Highland

Ethiopian Plateau, Drakensberg

Cool year-round, cold nights, occasional snow.

Coastal humid

Mozambique, East Africa coast

Hot and humid, mango-and-monsoon weather.

Semi-arid

Sahel, Karoo

Marginal rainfall, scrub and grassland.

Subtropical

KwaZulu-Natal coast

Humid summers, mild winters, beach territory.