Africa
The world's second-largest continent and humanity's birthplace
Africa straddles the equator across roughly 30.3 million square kilometers (11.7 million square miles), making it the second-largest continent and, by most evidence, the place where our own species first appeared. From the Mediterranean shore to the Cape of Good Hope it runs nearly the full height of the globe, packing in the largest hot desert on Earth, the longest river, and tropical rainforest second only to the Amazon. Fifty-four countries share it — more than any other continent.
Its physical map is one of dramatic contrasts. The Sahara spreads across the north in an expanse of sand and rock larger than the contiguous United States, while the Congo Basin holds dense equatorial jungle. The Nile threads 6,650 kilometers northward to the Mediterranean, and the Great Rift Valley — where the continent is slowly tearing apart — cradles deep lakes and the snow-topped cone of Kilimanjaro at 5,895 meters (19,341 feet). Savanna grasslands between these extremes shelter the planet's greatest surviving herds of large wild mammals.
Africa is the youngest continent by the age of its people and the fastest-growing by population, projected to hold a quarter of humanity by mid-century. That demographic momentum sits atop extraordinary mineral wealth and a mosaic of more than a thousand languages. The same geography that gave rise to ancient Egypt, the empires of the Sahel, and the kingdoms of the Great Lakes continues to shape a continent of immense scale and diversity.