It is widely believed that the African continent got its name from the ancient Romans. Defeating the ancient northern African city of Carthage, the Romans founded a province there they named it Africa, named after the Afri tribe that inhabited the area. Here we discuss five interesting facts about Africa to name a few;
1. Africa Is The Second Largest Continent In The World
Africa is the second largest continent in the world continent in the world with a total area of around 11.73 million square miles (30.37 million square kilometers) that account for 5.7% of the earth’s surface as well as 20% of the total surface of land on our planet. It is divided up into five sub-sections; North Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, Southern Africa and West Africa. One of the most interesting facts about Africa is that the length and breadth of the continent are about the same, Horizontal Width 4,355 miles (7,009 km) from Dakar, Senegal, east to Mogadishu, Somalia and Vertical Length 4,504 miles (7,248 km) from Cape Town, South Africa north to Tripoli, Libya.
2. Between 1500-2000 Languages Are Spoken In Africa
There are at least 3,000 distinct ethnic groups in Africa and around 2,000 different languages are spoken and each of them has different dialects. While Arabic is the language that is most widely spoken in the African continent, followed by English and Swahili, French respectively.
3. Africa Is The Source Of The World’s Oldest River
The Nile River is the longest river in the world, is approximately 4,258 miles (6,853 kilometers) long and passes Flowing northward through through 11 countries: Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt.
4. The World’s Largest Hottest Desert Is In Africa
The Sahara desert is the world’s largest hot desert and one of the harshest environments on the planet. It is third largest desert overall after Antarctica and the Arctic, which are cold deserts. At 3.6 million square miles (9.4 million square kilometers) bigger than the entire USA! The desert covers 11countries (large sections of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia).
5. Africa Is Home To The World’s Oldest University
The oldest existing, and continually operating educational institution in the world is the University of Karueein, ( Athen’s of Africa) founded in 859 AD by Fatima al-Fihri in Fez, Morocco and was originally a madrassa. The University of Bologna, Italy, was founded in 1088 and is the oldest one in Europe.
