Africa

**Africa** is a large continent to the south of Europe and connected via the Suez Isthmus to Asia. It is surrounded on the east by the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, on the south by the Southern Ocean, and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Its position to the south of the Mediterranean Sea has given it one of the oldest recorded histories in the world, with written records continuous from 3000 BC in Egypt. Africa, for a very long time, had only one major civilization on it: Egypt. The Nile River supplied life-bringing water to an otherwise barren and desolate desert, which allowed Egypt to flourish long before most other cultures. The Nile begins in the Rwenzori Mountains, an alpine region with snow-capped peaks that straddles the equator east of the Congo Basin. From there, the Nile flows through a number of the African Great Lakes, before spilling into the Sudd, a region of Nile-fed wetlands. Flowing into Sudan, the Nile encounters a number of cataracts before flowing in a mostly-straight course to the Mediterranean, ending in a large delta.

While the Nile is the most important river in African history, the Niger, Congo, and Zambezi rivers, as well as others, are equally important in their regions. The Niger flows eastward from central Guinea through Mali (passing Timbuktu), Niger, and Nigeria, ending in the Biafra region in a large delta. The Congo is different, meandering through the vast, swampy rainforest of the Congo Basin. Numerous tributaries flow into the Congo River, which flows between two enormous metropolises: Brazzaville on the west bank, and Kinshasa on the east. Unlike the Nile or Niger, the Congo doesn't end in a large delta, instead flowing directly out into the Atlantic Ocean. The Zambezi flows from Zambia through the near-quadpoint at Kazungula, through several lakes and over Victoria Falls, before terminating in the Indian Ocean in a wide delta.

Most historically important African cultures sprang up around these wide, usually navigable rivers. However, their size and scale are dwarfed by the Sahara Desert, the world's largest contiguous arid region. The Sahara Desert spans from Senegal to Sinai and from Tunisia to northern Nigeria. Niger and Mauritania are nearly entirely desert nations, though the south of these two is part of the Sahel region, which is semiarid and is suitable for pasturing and light agriculture. The Sahara Desert is divided into a number of basins due to several volcanic mountain regions, and is separated from the Mediterranean Sea to the northwest by the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and Algeria; the region north of the Atlas has a similar climate to Spain, especially in the Rif region. The Hoggar and Tibesti Mountains are the largest and most prominent of these. The mountains are complemented by deep endorheic basins such as Qattara, Chad, and Djerid. The Chad basin used to contain an enormous ancient lake, Lake Megachad. Together, the Sahara region constitutes a diverse ecosystem and geographic area,

To the south of the Sahel lies the West African forests, the Central African savannas, and the rugged Horn of Africa. In West Africa, the forests are usually dry but there is a pronounced monsoon season. The rivers flowing to the coast can provide transportation, though these are usually small rivers and only suitable for irrigation. In central Africa, the Cameroonian highlands, the Central African basin, and the Congo Basin dominate the landscape. The Horn of Africa is home to Ethiopia, a landlocked country with serious internal divisions but is rapidly growing on the world stage, and Somalia, a war-torn country that was once a maritime power on the Indian Ocean coast. This region is termed Sub-Saharan Africa, and more than 600 million people live in this region. To the east of the Congo Basin, divided by the African Rift System, is Tanzania, historically known as Tanganyika. This region is home to over 200 million people as well and the countries are so economically intertwined that proposals have been made for an "East African Federation."

Finally, in the extreme south of the continent lies simultaneously the poorest and the richest countries in Africa. Malawi, at the south end of the African Rift System, is small, underdeveloped, and weak, and many people don't even realize that it exists, sandwiched between the significantly better-known Zambia and Mozambique. The Zambezi River flows through Zambia, Angola, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, irrigating valuable farmland and allowing pastures to exist in otherwise arid regions. Angola is a country that is rapidly growing, much like the rest of Africa, but its economy is in shambles after decades of civil war and unrest. Namibia is not much better off, being more stable but mainly consisting of the large and ancient Namib Desert. South Africa and the Bantu enclaves of Lesotho and Eswatini round off the continent, in a mountainous highland region that is home to some of the most politically charged ethnic conflicts in Africa between the Dutch-descendant Boers, the native Bantu, Xhosa, and Zulu, and the English-descendant Cape area.