Africa - the hottest continent

Africa is the second largest continent in the world after Eurasia, its territory is 29 million km ² , which is about 20.4% of the world's land area. Most of the features of this continent, such as flora, fauna and climate, are due to its geographical location.

Geographical position

Africa is located in the Southern Hemisphere and is crossed by the equator. This leads to the fact that the continent receives a huge amount of sunlight and heat, and this, in turn, explains why Africa is the hottest continent.

The relief of the continent is mostly flat, because it is located on a single African plate, the collision of which with the Eurasian plate led to the formation of the Atlas Mountains. In the south and east of the continent are several uplands, two of which - Ahaggar and Tibesti - are in the Sahara. From Asia, Africa is separated only by the artificially created Suez Canal.

The highest point on the mainland is the widely known Kilimanjaro volcano, whose height is 5895 meters, and the lowest point is Lake Assal, which is 157 meters above sea level.

The climate of Africa

Any schoolboy knows that Africa is the hottest continent on the planet, but far from everyone knows why the average temperature here is higher than on other continents. The reason for this is the fact that exactly in the middle there is the equator. This leads to the fact that Africa is located in the four hottest climatic zones.

The largest part of the territory is in the subequatorial belt. Here you can clearly identify the rainy and dry seasons, in contrast to the equatorial one, which is one of the main reasons why Africa is the hottest continent. This climate zone originates from the Gulf of Guinea and extends into the interior of the continent, to Lake Victoria. It is impossible to single out the seasons, because the temperature in this belt is stable. The climate in the tropical and subtropical zones is similar, for these territories clear weather and low amount of precipitation is characteristic.

Internal and external waters

The hottest continent is washed by the Indian Ocean in the northeast and the Atlantic in the west, and by the Mediterranean and Red Seas in the east and northeast, respectively.

The inland waters of Africa include the Nile, the Congo, the Niger, the Zambezi and other water arteries. The Nile is the second longest river in the world after the Amazon, which is about 6852 km long. It originates at the origins of the Rukarara River, and ends, falling into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile Delta provides water for a considerable number of coastal populations for thousands of years.

The largest lake in Africa is Victoria, which is also the second largest freshwater lake in the world.

Minerals

In the world economy, Africa is not known as the hottest continent on the planet, but as one of the main sources of many minerals. South Africa is the richest country on natural resources, there are many deposits of different raw materials.

On the territory of South Africa there are deposits of ore, tungsten, chromites and uranium ore. The northern part of the continent is rich in zinc, molybdenum, cobalt and lead, and the western part is rich in coal and oil.

To summarize, it should be noted that the territory of this continent is not fully developed, and many species of flora and fauna inhabiting the tropics have not yet been studied. But the resources that are here are a weighty argument for continuing to master the hottest continent. Africa has been and will remain mysterious and alluring for many adventurers and connoisseurs of wildlife.