Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² (11.7 million sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. more...

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With about 922 million people (as of 2005) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.2% of the World's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. There are 53 countries, including Madagascar and various island groups, associated with the continent.

Africa, particularly central eastern Africa, is widely regarded within the scientific community to be the origin of humans and the Hominidae tree (great apes), as evidenced by the discovery of the earliest hominids and their ancestors, as well as later ones that have been dated to around seven million years ago – including Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Australopithecus africanus, A. afarensis, Homo erectus, H. habilis and H. ergaster – with the earliest Homo sapiens (human) found in Ethiopia being dated to ca. 200,000 years ago.

Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones. Because of the lack of natural regular precipitation and irrigation as well as glaciers or mountain aquifer systems, there is no natural moderating effect on the climate except near the coasts.

Etymology

Afri was the name of several peoples who dwelt in North Africa near Carthage. Their name is usually connected with Phoenician afar, \"dust\", but a 1981 theory has asserted that it stems from a Berber word ifri or Ifran meaning \"cave\", in reference to cave dwellers. Africa or Ifri or Afer is name of Banu Ifran from Algeria and Tripolitania (Berber Tribe of Yafran) .

In Roman times, Carthage became the capital of Africa Province, which also included the coastal part of modern Libya. The Roman suffix \"-ca\" denotes \"country or land\". The later Muslim kingdom of Ifriqiya, modern-day Tunisia, also preserved a form of the name.

Read more at Wikipedia.org