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99 results in the libraryPage 1 of 599 results in the library · Fun facts · Page 1 of 5
Africa is the only continent crossed by both the equator and the two tropics, so it touches all four hemispheres.
Author not specified in the imported source
Africa · Africa
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
At roughly 9.2 million square kilometres, the Sahara is about the size of the United States and larger than Australia.
Author not specified in the imported source
Sahara · Africa
External reference (site language): Hotel Sahara ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Winds carry millions of tonnes of phosphorus-rich Saharan dust across the Atlantic each year, feeding Amazon soils.
Author not specified in the imported source
Sahara · Africa
External reference (site language): Sahara ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The White Nile rises near Lake Victoria and the Blue Nile at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. They meet in Khartoum.
Author not specified in the imported source
Nile · Africa
External reference (site language): Nile ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The Great Pyramid was already old when the last woolly mammoths died out on Wrangel Island around 1650 BC.
Author not specified in the imported source
Giza, Egypt · Africa
External reference (site language): Giza ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Cleopatra's lifetime is nearer to the invention of the iPhone than to the building of the Great Pyramid.
Author not specified in the imported source
Egypt · Africa
External reference (site language): Egypt ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Abu Simbel was cut into more than 1,000 blocks and reassembled 65 metres higher to escape the rising Aswan reservoir.
Author not specified in the imported source
Abu Simbel, Egypt · Africa
External reference (site language): Abu Simbel ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The famous library declined over centuries through several fires, funding cuts and political upheaval rather than one dramatic blaze.
Author not specified in the imported source
Alexandria, Egypt · Africa
External reference (site language): Library of Alexandria ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The Nubian kingdom of Kush built over 200 steep-sided pyramids at Meroe, roughly twice Egypt's total.
Author not specified in the imported source
Meroe, Sudan · Africa
External reference (site language): History of Sudan ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Ethiopia runs a 13-month calendar about seven years behind the Gregorian one, and the day starts at sunrise.
Author not specified in the imported source
Ethiopia · Africa
External reference (site language): Ethiopia ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The eleven churches of Lalibela were cut down into solid rock in the 12th century, roofs level with the ground.
Author not specified in the imported source
Lalibela, Ethiopia · Africa
External reference (site language): Lalibela ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Wild Coffea arabica still grows in Ethiopian forests, and the country's coffee ceremony can take well over an hour.
Author not specified in the imported source
Ethiopia · Africa
External reference (site language): Ethiopia ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Average yearly temperatures above 34 degrees make the Danakil Depression among the hottest inhabited regions on Earth.
Author not specified in the imported source
Danakil, Ethiopia · Africa
External reference (site language): Ethiopia ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Asmara holds one of the world's best-preserved collections of 1930s modernist architecture, including a petrol station shaped like a plane.
Author not specified in the imported source
Asmara, Eritrea · Africa
External reference (site language): Asmara ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Lake Assal is about ten times saltier than the ocean and sits 155 metres below sea level.
Author not specified in the imported source
Lake Assal, Djibouti · Africa
External reference (site language): Hypersaline lake ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Somalia's coastline runs roughly 3,300 kilometres along the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.
Author not specified in the imported source
Somalia · Africa
External reference (site language): Somalia ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The East African Rift is slowly tearing Africa apart, and in millions of years a new ocean may fill the gap.
Author not specified in the imported source
Great Rift Valley, Kenya · Africa
External reference (site language): Great Rift Valley ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Around two million wildebeest, zebra and gazelle circle continuously between Tanzania and Kenya following the rains.
Author not specified in the imported source
Serengeti and Masai Mara · Africa
External reference (site language): Maasai Mara ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Africa's highest mountain is made of Kibo, Mawenzi and Shira. Kibo is dormant rather than extinct.
Author not specified in the imported source
Kilimanjaro, Tanzania · Africa
External reference (site language): Kilimanjaro Region ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 lasted under 45 minutes, the shortest recorded war in history.
Author not specified in the imported source
Zanzibar, Tanzania · Africa
External reference (site language): Anglo-Zanzibar War ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The crater is a caldera 20 kilometres wide, home to around 25,000 large animals that rarely need to leave.
Author not specified in the imported source
Ngorongoro, Tanzania · Africa
External reference (site language): List of Ngorongoro Crater plants ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest shelters roughly half the remaining mountain gorillas, whose numbers have slowly risen.
Author not specified in the imported source
Bwindi, Uganda · Africa
External reference (site language): Tourism in Uganda ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Africa's largest lake is shared by Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, and supports tens of millions of people.
Author not specified in the imported source
Lake Victoria · Africa
External reference (site language): Victoria Newman ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Rwanda outlawed non-biodegradable plastic bags in 2008, and bags are confiscated from arriving travellers.
Author not specified in the imported source
Rwanda · Africa
External reference (site language): Rwanda ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The missed ferry. The stranger who handed over a key. The meal that ran until midnight. If something happened to you on the road and you still think about it, send it - a few sentences is plenty, and we do the tidying up.
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