Africa tour

Why not take a tour to Africa and see the super continent. It can be a super place to see. You may to see a safari. You may want tour the place by boat, plane, car, coach, steam engine, helicopter walking, cycling, a rally car, maybe on a marathon. There are many events which have a Africa tour, or Africa stage. You may want to view the fun desert, the mountains, or a cruise the rivers such as the Nile and the Congo. You may want to tour around the coast.

The average elevation of the continent approximates closely to 600 m above sea level, roughly near to the mean elevation of both North and South America, but considerably less than that of Asia, 950 m. In contrast with other continents, it is marked by the comparatively small area of either very high or very low ground, lands under 180 m occupying an unusually small part of the surface; while not only are the highest elevations inferior to those of Asia or South America, but the area of land over 3,000 m is also quite insignificant, being represented almost entirely by individual peaks and mountain ranges. Moderately elevated tablelands are thus the characteristic feature of the continent, though the surface of these is broken by higher peaks and ridges. (So prevalent are these isolated peaks and ridges that a specialised term has been adopted in Germany to describe this kind of country, thought to be in great part the result of wind action.)

As a general rule, the higher tablelands lie to the east and south, while a progressive diminution in altitude towards the west and north is observable. Apart from the lowlands and the Atlas mountain range, the continent may be divided into two regions of higher and lower plateaus, the dividing line (somewhat concave to the north-west) running from the middle of the Red Sea to about 6 deg. S. on the west coast.

Africa can be divided into a number of geographic zones:

The coastal plains - often fringed seawards by mangrove swamps - never stretching far from the coast, apart from the lower courses of streams. Recent alluvial flats are found chiefly in the delta of the more important rivers. Elsewhere, the coastal lowlands merely form the lowest steps of the system of terraces that constitutes the ascent to the inner plateaus.
The Atlas range — orographically distinct from the rest of the continent, being unconnected with and separated from the south by a depressed and desert area (the Sahara).
The high southern and eastern plateaus, rarely falling below 600 m, have a mean elevation of about 1000 m. The South African plateau, as far as about 12° S, is bounded east, west and south by bands of high ground which fall steeply to the coasts. On this account South Africa has a general resemblance to an inverted saucer. Due south the plateau rim is formed by three parallel steps with level ground between them. The largest of these level areas, the Great Karoo, is a dry, barren region, and a large tract of the plateau proper is of a still more arid character and is known as the Kalahari Desert.

The South African plateau is connected towards the north-east with the East African plateau, with probably a slightly greater average elevation, and marked by some distinct features. It is formed by a widening out of the eastern axis of high ground, which becomes subdivided into a number of zones running north and south and consisting in turn of ranges, tablelands and depressions. The most striking feature is the existence of two great lines of depression, due largely to the subsidence of whole segments of the earth's crust, the lowest parts of which are occupied by vast lakes. Towards the south the two lines converge and give place to one great valley (occupied by Lake Nyasa), the southern part of which is less distinctly due to rifting and subsidence than the rest of the system.

Farther north the western depression, known as the Great Rift Valley is occupied for more than half its length by water, forming the Great Lakes of Tanganyika, Kivu, Lake Edward and Lake Albert, the first-named over 400 miles long and the longest freshwater lake in the world. Associated with these great valleys are a number of volcanic peaks, the greatest of which occur on a meridional line east of the eastern trough. The eastern depression, known as the East African trough or rift-valley, contains much smaller lakes, many of them brackish and without outlet, the only one comparable to those of the western trough being Lake Turkana or Basso Norok.

At no great distance east of this rift-valley are Mount Kilimanjaro - with its two peaks Kibo and Mawenzi, the latter being 5889 m, and the culminating point of the whole continent - and Mount Kenya, which is 5184 m. Hardly less important is the Ruwenzori Range, over 5060 m, which lies east of the western trough. Other volcanic peaks rise from the floor of the valleys, some of the Kirunga (Mfumbiro) group, north of Lake Kivu, being still partially active.

The area between the east and west coast highlands, which north of 17° N is mainly desert, is divided into separate basins by other bands of high ground, one of which runs nearly centrally through North Africa in a line corresponding roughly with the curved axis of the continent as a whole. The best marked of the basins so formed (the Congo basin) occupies a circular area bisected by the equator, once probably the site of an inland sea.

Running along the south of desert is the plains region known as the Sahel.

The arid region, the Sahara — the largest desert in the world, covering 9,000,000 km² — extends from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. Though generally of slight elevation it contains mountain ranges with peaks rising to 2400 m Bordered N.W. by the Atlas range, to the northeast a rocky plateau separates it from the Mediterranean; this plateau gives place at the extreme east to the delta of the Nile. That river pierces the desert without modifying its character. The Atlas range, the north-westerly part of the continent, between its seaward and landward heights encloses elevated steppes in places 160 km broad. From the inner slopes of the plateau numerous wadis take a direction towards the Sahara. The greater part of that now desert region is, indeed, furrowed by old water-channels.

The following table gives the approximate altitudes of the chief mountains and lakes of the continent:

The third division of the higher region of Africa is formed by the Ethiopian Highlands, a rugged mass of mountains forming the largest continuous area of its altitude in the whole continent, little of its surface falling below 1500 m, while the summits reach heights of 4600 m to 4900 m. This block of country lies just west of the line of the great East African Trough, the northern continuation of which passes along its eastern escarpment as it runs up to join the Red Sea. There is, however, in the centre a circular basin occupied by Lake Tsana.

Both in the east and west of the continent the bordering highlands are continued as strips of plateau parallel to the coast, the Ethiopian mountains being continued northwards along the Red Sea coast by a series of ridges reaching in places a height of 2000 m. In the west the zone of high land is broader but somewhat lower. The most mountainous districts lie inland from the head of the Gulf of Guinea (Adamawa, etc.), where heights of 1800 m to 2400 m are reached. Exactly at the head of the gulf the great peak of the Cameroon, on a line of volcanic action continued by the islands to the south-west, has a height of 4075 m, while Clarence Peak, in Fernando Po, the first of the line of islands, rises to over 2700 m. Towards the extreme west the Futa Jallon highlands form an important diverging point of rivers, but beyond this, as far as the Atlas chain, the elevated rim of the continent is almost wanting.

With exception - Madagascar - the African islands are small.

xtreme points

This is a list of the extreme points of Africa, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location on the continent.

Africa

Northernmost Point — Ras ben Sakka, Tunisia
Southernmost Point — Cape Agulhas, South Africa
Westernmost Point — Santo Antão, Cape Verde Islands
Easternmost Point — Rodrigues, Mauritius
African pole of inaccessibility is close to the border of Central African Republic, Sudan and Congo, near the town Obo.

Africa (mainland)

Northernmost Point — Ra's al Abyad (Cape Blanc), Tunisia
Southernmost Point — Cape Agulhas, South Africa
Westernmost Point — Pointe des Almadies, Cap Vert Peninsula, Senegal
Easternmost Point — Ras Hafun (Raas Xaafuun), Somalia

The highest point in Africa is Mount Kilimanjaro, 5895m, in Tanzania. The lowest point is Lake Asal, 153m below sea level, in Djibouti.

You may want to rent, sell, hire, loan, buy invest in property in the continent. You may just want to view the wildlife or the culture.

Find a Villa from Across Europe

Grand World Villas - Find a Villa from anywhere in the world

Grand Global Villas - Find Villas from Around the Globe

Planet Villas

An Index with links to almost all our sites.

Holiday to - Great places to go on Holiday to

Holiday to 2 - More Great places to go on Holiday to