This chapter explores three continents of the southern world. Africa is the second largest and second most populous continent; Australia is the largest island and the smallest continent; Antarctica is the southernmost and fifth-largest continent, the coldest, with a permanent cover of ice and no native population.
1. Africa – Location and Size
- Extends from 37°21' N to 34°51' S latitude and from 17°33' W to 51°27' E longitude; area about 30.36 million sq km (20.2% of the world's land area).
- It is the only continent through which the Tropic of Cancer, the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn all pass, and it lies in all four hemispheres.
- North–south extent 7623 km; east–west extent 7260 km. The Prime Meridian passes near Accra, the capital of Ghana.
- David Livingstone and H.M. Stanley were the first to explore its interior. Henry M. Stanley first used the term "Dark Continent" (1878).
- Early human ancestors lived in Africa for more than 5 million years, so it is nicknamed the "Mother Continent" – the oldest inhabited continent.
- Africa has 54 countries, grouped as West, North, Central, Eastern and Southern Africa. Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Mauritania and Tunisia are called the 'Maghreb' ('west' in Arabic). Madagascar is its major island.