Transcript ch1.1 Africa book

Chapter 1 Africa Landforms
and Geography
Section 1 Land and Water
I. Africa’s Regions and Landforms
Africa is broken up into more than 50
countries and 4 major regions
 North, West, East and Central/Southern
Africa

A. Four Regions
The North is marked by large Rocky Mountains
and one of the largest deserts in the world the
Sahara
 West Africa is mostly grassland and is the most
populated area of Africa here farming is the
main way of life
 East Africa is mostly plateaus and Mountains
 Central and Southern Africa is filled with
Swamps, rain forests, and large deserts

B. Plateau Continent
Africa is called the plateau continent since
much of its land is raised flat lands often
covered with deserts and rain forests that
lead up to mountains
 The highest mountain is Kilimanjaro in
Tanzania

C. Coastal Plains Edge the Continent

There is a strip of coastal plains that edge
the Continent, this area is mostly dry and
sandy but at times turns to swamp
D. Great Rift Valley

This valley is formed at the bottom of
Mount Kilimanjaro, it acts a huge trench
and stretches nearly 4,000 miles
II. Africa’s rivers
Four large rivers carry water from the
mountains to the sea
 The Nile, the Congo, the Zambezi, and the
Niger(ny-jur) rivers

A. The Nile in Africa
The Nile is the longest river in the world
and is over 4000 miles long
 Just like Egypt the Nile in Africa also is
filled with rapids (remember we called
these cataracts) and it has many
tributaries

B. Farming Along the Nile
Like in Egypt farming is great near the
Nile river, and again the annual flooding
causes what??? To help fertilize the land
around the river???
 They also use the powerful flow of the
Nile to build dams which can allow for the
creation of electricity

C. The Congo river
The Congo flows through the Rain Forests
of central Africa
 The Congo is also a great area for farming
but also fishing
(tiger fish)

The Zambezi river


This river is the shortest in Africa at 2200 miles but can
be one of the hardest to travel with only 460 miles that
can be maneuvered by boat because of its rapids and
waterfalls
This river leads us to one of the 7 wonders of the world
in Victoria Falls