Cape Verde is entirely volcanic
All ten Cape Verdean islands are volcanic, and Fogo's cone still has villages farming on its crater floor.
Author not specified in the imported source
Cape Verde · Africa
External reference (site language): Cape Verde ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Guinea-Bissau has a maze of islands
The Bijagos archipelago has around 88 islands, most uninhabited, and is a UNESCO biosphere reserve.
Author not specified in the imported source
Bijagos, Guinea-Bissau · Africa
External reference (site language): Guinea-Bissau ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Liberia was founded by freed people
Liberia was established in the 1820s as a settlement for freed African Americans and declared independence in 1847.
Author not specified in the imported source
Liberia · Africa
External reference (site language): History of Liberia ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Sierra Leone means lion mountains
Portuguese sailors named the peninsula for mountains whose thunderstorms sounded like roaring lions.
Author not specified in the imported source
Sierra Leone · Africa
External reference (site language): Sierra Leone ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Togo is narrow and long
Togo is only about 110 kilometres wide but stretches 550 kilometres inland from the Gulf of Guinea.
Author not specified in the imported source
Togo · Africa
External reference (site language): Togo ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Benin has a lake village on stilts
Around 20,000 people live in Ganvie entirely on stilts above Lake Nokoue, moving by pirogue.
Author not specified in the imported source
Ganvie, Benin · Africa
External reference (site language): Ganvie ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Angola has waterfalls few visit
The Kalandula Falls drop about 105 metres across a 400-metre curtain and see a fraction of Victoria Falls' visitors.
Author not specified in the imported source
Kalandula, Angola · Africa
External reference (site language): Kalandula Falls ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Namibia protects its whole coast
Namibia was the first African country to write environmental protection into its constitution, and its entire coastline is now protected.
Author not specified in the imported source
Skeleton Coast, Namibia · Africa
External reference (site language): History of Namibia ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Sossusvlei's dunes are among the tallest
Dunes here reach over 300 metres, coloured deep red by iron oxide that has been oxidising for millions of years.
Author not specified in the imported source
Sossusvlei, Namibia · Africa
External reference (site language): Sossusvlei ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Deadvlei's trees never rotted
The camelthorn trees died around 900 years ago but the air is too dry for decomposition, so they still stand black against white clay.
Author not specified in the imported source
Deadvlei, Namibia · Africa
External reference (site language): Deadvlei ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Namibia has the world's largest meteorite
The Hoba meteorite weighs about 60 tonnes and has never been moved from where it landed roughly 80,000 years ago.
Author not specified in the imported source
Hoba, Namibia · Africa
External reference (site language): Geology of Namibia ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Botswana's delta flows inland
The Okavango River never reaches the sea. It spreads into the Kalahari and evaporates, creating a vast seasonal wetland.
Author not specified in the imported source
Okavango, Botswana · Africa
External reference (site language): Okavango Delta ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Botswana has the most elephants
Around a third of Africa's savanna elephants live in Botswana, concentrated in the Chobe region.
Author not specified in the imported source
Botswana · Africa
External reference (site language): Botswana ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Makgadikgadi was once a lake
These salt pans are the bed of a superlake that dried up thousands of years ago, and they are visible from orbit.
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Makgadikgadi, Botswana · Africa
External reference (site language): Lake Makgadikgadi ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Zambia and Zimbabwe share a waterfall
Victoria Falls is neither the tallest nor the widest, but its combined height and width create the largest sheet of falling water.
Author not specified in the imported source
Victoria Falls · Africa
External reference (site language): Iguazu Falls ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
You can swim at the edge of Victoria Falls
When the river is low, a natural rock lip forms Devil's Pool, where swimmers sit metres from a 100-metre drop.
Author not specified in the imported source
Livingstone, Zambia · Africa
External reference (site language): Livingstone, Zambia ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Zimbabwe has stone ruins without mortar
Great Zimbabwe's walls were built from fitted granite blocks with no mortar and gave the modern country its name.
Author not specified in the imported source
Great Zimbabwe · Africa
External reference (site language): Great Zimbabwe ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Malawi's lake has more fish species than any other
Lake Malawi contains more fish species than any other lake, with hundreds of cichlids found nowhere else.
Author not specified in the imported source
Lake Malawi · Africa
External reference (site language): Lake Malawi ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Mozambique's flag has a rifle
Mozambique is the only country whose flag features a modern assault rifle, alongside a hoe and a book.
Author not specified in the imported source
Mozambique · Africa
External reference (site language): Flag of Mozambique ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Madagascar split off long ago
Madagascar separated from other landmasses around 88 million years ago, so roughly 90 percent of its wildlife is unique.
Author not specified in the imported source
Madagascar · Africa
External reference (site language): Madagascar ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Baobabs store water in their trunks
A large baobab can hold well over 100,000 litres of water in its trunk to survive the dry season.
Author not specified in the imported source
Madagascar · Africa
External reference (site language): Madagascar ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Mauritius lost the dodo in a century
The dodo went from first European sighting to extinction in under 100 years, mostly through introduced rats and pigs.
Author not specified in the imported source
Mauritius · Africa
External reference (site language): Islets of Mauritius ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Seychelles has the biggest seed
The coco de mer palm produces the largest and heaviest seed in the plant kingdom, weighing up to 25 kilograms.
Author not specified in the imported source
Praslin, Seychelles · Africa
External reference (site language): History of Seychelles ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Reunion has an always-active volcano
Piton de la Fournaise erupts every year or two, and roads are built to be rebuilt after lava crosses them.
Author not specified in the imported source
Reunion · Africa
External reference (site language): Reunion ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.