1. Africa
Physical Geography

2. The Four Regions of Africa
• Africa can be divided into four
regions:
(1) North;
(2) West;
(3) East; and
(4) Central and Southern.

3. • North Africa’s physical features
include rocky mountains and the
Sahara, the world’s largest desert.
Sahara

4. • West Africa is Africa’s most
populated region; its grasslands
provide good soil for farming.

5. • East Africa is
marked by
mountains,
hills, and
plateaus,
plateaus
large raised
areas of
mostly level
land.

6. • Central and Southern Africa has
grasslands, rain forests, mountains,
swamps, and deserts, including the
Namib and the Kalahari.
Kalahari

7. Africa’s Major Landforms
• Africa is called the “plateau continent”
because of its high elevation—the
height of land above sea level.
• Each of Africa’s regions has mountains.
The highest are in East Africa.
• There, the continent’s highest mountain,
Mount Kilimanjaro, rises to a height of
more than 19,000 feet.

8. • Coastal plains lie along much Africa’s
coastline. In some places, the plains end
in an escarpment, or steep cliff.
• The 4,000-mile-long Great Rift Valley in
East Africa was formed millions of
years ago as continents pulled apart.
• A rift is a deep trench.
• Major lakes are in or near the Great
Rift Valley.

9. The Great Rift Valley
The Great Rift
Valley is so large
that more than
30 Grand Canyons
could fit inside it.

10. Africa’s Rivers
• The Nile: The world’s longest river, it runs
more than 4,000 miles.
• From its two sources, the White Nile and
the Blue Nile, it flows north into the
Mediterranean Sea.
• Its floods deposit silt, bits of rock and soil
that make the land fertile, or nourishing,
to plants.
• The Aswan High Dam controls flooding and
provides electric power from the rushing
water.

11. • The Congo: Africa’s second-longest
Congo
river runs through Central Africa into
the Atlantic Ocean, fed by tributaries,
small rivers and streams that flow into a
larger river.
• The Niger: Africa’s third-longest river
Niger
begins in Guinea, running about 2,600
miles and ending in the Gulf of Guinea.
• The Zambezi: Africa’s fourth-longest
Zambezi
river is about 2,200 miles long and runs
through six countries in Southern
Africa.

12. Climate and Vegetation
• What types of climates and
vegetation are found in Africa?
• How do climate and vegetation
affect how Africans make a living?

13. What Influences Climate?
• The climate in most of Africa is
warm because the continent lies
along the Equator.
• The seasons above the Equator are
the opposite of those below the
Equator.

14. • Countries with higher elevation, such as
Ethiopia, tend to have a cooler, moister
climate than those at a low elevation.

15. • Lower countries such as Somalia
tend to be hot and dry.

16. • Their farmers must irrigate, or
artificially water, their crops.
• Or they must farm near an oasis, a
place with springs and underground
water.
• Rainfall in Africa varies greatly,
from more than 100 inches per year
to almost no rain.

17. • Between the Sahara
and the savanna is a
region called the Sahel,
which is hot and dry.
• Nomads are people who
move around to various
places to make a living.
• Nomadic traders,
hunters, and herders
live in the Sahara.

18. Building Good Health
• Climate affects the health of people and
livestock throughout Africa.
• The moisture in the rain forest breeds
disease-carrying insects.

19. • The tsetse fly is found in nearly one fifth
of Africa.
• The bite of the tsetse fly kills cattle and
causes humans to get sleeping sickness.
• Herders in various countries use poisons
and traps
to try to control
the spread of the
tsetse fly.

20. Agricultural Resources
• Much of Africa’s land is used for
subsistence farming, or raising crops
to support one’s own family.
• Some subsistence farmers also grow
a few crops to sell or trade.

21. • Crops raised to be sold are called
cash crops.
• African cash crops include coffee,
cacao, and tea.
• When too much land is used for
cash crops and those crops fail,
food shortages can occur.