Africa Physical Features Daily Objective Students will explore

Africa Physical Features

Daily Objective • Students will explore the landforms and environment that makes Africa.

North Africa

North Africa • North Africa covers from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. It is bordered to the north by the Mediterranean Sea.

North Africa • Broad coastal plains are a main landform in North Africa

North Africa • The Atlas Mountains run parallel to the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts.

The Sahara • The Sahara is the world’s largest desert. • The Sahara extends across all of North Africa. This vast desert acts as a natural barrier between North Africa and the rest of the African continent.

Sahara • The climate of the Sahara has undergone cycles of wet and dry periods over thousands of years. • During some of these wet periods the desert was able to support grasslands and abundant animal life.

Sahara • Today most of the Sahara is a barren expanse of rock and sand. • The desert covers about 3. 5 million square miles of land. It roughly is the size of the entire United States. • In basins, seas of shifting sands called ergs form.

Sahara • In other areas, wind blows the sand dust away, leaving a gravel-covered plain. • This is called a reg.

The Nile • The Nile river flows through Egypt into the Mediterranean. This means that it flows to the north. • Water from the river and the Nile Delta supports crops and other vegetation, creating a fertile green strip across Egypt.

The Nile • In 1960 the Aswan High Dam was completed on the upper Nile. It allowed a year round supply of water for irrigation, effectively opening new areas to farming.

West and Central Africa

West and Central Africa • Plains and low hills mix with rainforest to make up the landscape of West and Central Africa.

The Congo Basin • The Congo Basin is a huge, wet tropical lowland in Central Africa. It is the second largest rainforest. • The Congo River drains this region.

East Africa

East Africa • The Serengeti Plain • This is where most of the typical African wildlife would be found.

East Africa • East Africa’s landscape has been formed from tectonic processes. This resulted in the formation of huge rift valleys. • The Great Rift Valley is a series of geological faults. These faults run from Mozambique to Southwest Asia.

East Africa • Mt. Kilimanjaro is located near the Tanzania-Kenya border. It is the most famous of the rift’s volcanoes. Even though Kilimanjaro is near the equator, it is so high that snow always caps its twin peaks; it is the highest mountain in Africa.

Ethiopian Highlands • The Ethiopian Highlands are the largest area of high elevation (5, 000 ft). The highest peaks reaching near 15, 000 feet above sea level. • The Ethiopian Highlands cover major parts of Ethiopia, Somalia, and Eritrea.

Southern Africa

Southern Africa • A narrow coastal plain stretches along the southern Africa coastline. It is less than 100 miles wide in most places. • Inland from the coastal plain, a high plateau reaches more than 4, 000 feet above sea level.

Drakensberg Escarpment • Drakensberg Escarpment (Dragon’s Mountain) is located in Southern Africa. • It is the tallest Mountain range in Southern Africa (11, 420 Ft). • The Drakensberg was created through volcanic activity and the break up of Gondwanaland.

Kalahari Desert • The Kalahari Desert covers most of Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. • The desert receives between 3 -7. 5 inches of rain each year. • The area used to house many different species of wildlife. It now does not have near as many as it once did.

Namib Desert • The Namib is a coastal desert in southern Africa. The name Namib is of Nama origin and means "vast place".

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