Photos of our World.....
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Africa is the second-largest continent after Asia with an area of approx. 30 251 075 sq km. It is separated from Asia by the Suez Canal, the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea and from Europe by the Straits of Gibraltar and Mediterranean Sea. Off the western shore in the Atlantic Ocean are the Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, and Madeira Islands and, further south, Ascension Island and Saint Helena; in the Gulf of Guinea are Pagalu, Bioko, and Sao Tome and Principe. Off the eastern shore in the Indian Ocean are Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion, Zanzibar, Pemba, the Seychelles and the Comoros.
Africa is considered the cradle of humanity: the earliest-known protohuman fossils have been found here, primarily in Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. It is also the home of one of the world's oldest civilizations, that of ancient Egypt. North Africa was under Roman influence from the1st century BC-7th century AD). Beginning in the 7th century, Arab culture and the Muslim faith spread across the Sahara following trade routes between the north coast and towns along the Sahara's southern border region. A number of powerful African kingdoms, including Ghana, Mali, Kanem-Bornu, and Songhai, flourished during the Middle Ages. Further south in the rain forests the kingdoms of Ashanti, Benin, Kongo, Oyo, and Dahomey emerged after the 14th century and lasted until the colonial partition of Africa. East central Africa was occupied by the kingdoms of Ankole, Buganda, Bunyoro, Luba, and Lunda.
The modern European colonisation of Africa was begun by the Portuguese, who established trading stations on the coast in the 15th and 16th centuries, but the interior of what Europeans called "the Dark Continent" was not explored or colonized until the 19th century. By the early 20th century nearly all of Africa had been subjected to European rule. Since World War II, 49 nations have gained their independence, but the colonial experience left Africa with arbitrarily defined boundaries, a diversity of political systems and problems, and economies dependent upon the industrialized world. (The Republic of South Africa, though independent, was long controlled by descendants of European settlers; its black African majority did not participate in national elections until 1994.)
Africa's peoples remain divided by race, language, religion, and politics in a complex cultural mosaic. In 1995, Africa contained about 13 percent of the world's population and was the second most populous continent after Asia.
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