Africa is the
world's second-largest and second most-populous continent,
after Asia. At about 30,221,532 km˛ (11,668,545 mi˛) including
adjacent islands, it
covers 6.0% of the Earth's total
surface area, and 20.4% of the total l
and area.[1] With more than 900,000,000 people (as of 2005)[2] in 61
territories, it accounts for about 14% of the world's human
population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean
Sea to the north, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the
northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic
Ocean to the west. There are 46 countries
including Madagascar, and 53 including
all the island groups.
Africa, especially central
eastern Africa, is widely regarded within the scientific community to be the
origin of humans and the Hominidae tree, as evidenced by the
discovery
of the earliest Hominids, as
well as later ones that have been dated to around 7 million
years ago including Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Africanus, Homo
Erectus, with the earliest humans being dated to ca. 200,000
years ago, according to this view.
Africa straddles
the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only
continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern
temperate zones. Because of the lack of natural regular
precipitation and
irrigation as well as glaciers or
mountain aquifer systems, there is no natural moderating
effect on the
climate
except near the coasts.
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