Africa Unit 1 Day 3

Africa

Unit 1 Day 3

Africa

-Africa is the worlds second largest continent (11,700,000 miles).
-It is home to 54 countries, 2,000 different languages, and 1.4 billion people. 18% of the worlds population lives in Africa.
-The vast African continent has almost every type of landform and climate.
-Africa can be divided into several regions including The Sahara, the Sahel, the Savannah's, and the tropical rain forests.

The Sahara

-The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert (3,500,00 miles).
-It runs across the width of Northern Africa and covers 1/3rd of the continent.
-It divides the continent into two distinct regions - North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.
-The Sahara is covered with sand dunes, rocky hills, and stretches of gravel that continue for miles and miles.

The Sahara Continued...

-Very few people live in the desert because it considered one of the harshest places to live in the world.

-The people who do live here are called nomads.

-The move from place to place, usually traveling by camel, looking for food and water.

The Sahel

• The Sahel is a strip of dry grassland that is located south of the Sahara and north of the equator that seperates the desert from tropical rain forests.

• The word "Sahel" means "border" or "margin"

• Its is a dry, semi- arid region that is slowly turning into desert.

• It gets more rainfall than the desert, but still receives very little (ranging from 6-20 inches)

Open Ended

What does Sahel mean?

The Savanna

• The African savannas are hot, dry grasslands that are located near the Equator and cover almost half of Africa.

• They actually cover the regions just north and south of the rainforests that lie along the equator.

• The African savanna is the largest in the world (over 4.5 million square miles).

The Savanna Continued...

• There is a large variety of wildlife in the African savannas, including lions, zebras, & elephants.

Open Ended

What are three animals that live in the savanna?

Tropical Rainforest

-Africa's tropical rain forest is located along the central coast of Africa, near the Equator and lies in the Congo River Basin.
-The rain forest covers 1/5th of the lands surface of Africa and touches 37 countries.
-The rainforest has a hot, humid climate with an annual rainfall of over 17 feet.

Tropical Rainforest

-Africa's tropical rain forest is home to a large variety of animals.
- Trees are so thick and tall that sunlight never reaches the forest floor!
-The trees grow hundreds of feet tall.
-It's the second largest rain forest in the world; Amazon rain forest in Brazil is the largest.
-Unfortunestly, about 90% of the rain forest has shrunk due to deforestation.

Open Ended

What is one interesting thing you learned about the The Congo from this video?

-The Congo River is located in west central Africa.
-It begins in central Africa, near Lake Tanganyika, and flows west.
-It crosses the equator twice and is surrounded by rainforest.

The Congo River

-The Congo River is the second longest river in Africa and the fifth longest in the world.

-It is over 3,000 miles long.

The Congo River Continued...

The Niger River

-The Niger River is located in Western Africa.
-It flows through Guienea , Mali, Niger, Benin & Nigeria.
-The Niger River is the third largest river in Africa.
-It runs over 2,600 miles.

The Nile River

-The Nile River is located in Eastern Africa.

-It starts in the mountains of central Africa and flows northward through Eastern Africa and empties into the Mediterranean Sea/

-The Nile is the world's longest river at 4,150 miles.

- The Nile river provide water for the Sudan and Egypt.

-It's an important waterway for transporting people and goods.

-The Nile also provides a csource of irrigation for agriculture.

​Lake Victoria

​The Atlas Mountains

• Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa and the second largest freshwater lake in the world.

• It is located in central Africa and extends into three countries; Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya

• The Atlas Mountains are a mountain range in North Africa

• -The mountains extend from Morocco to Tunisia, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert

The Kalahari Desert

-The Kalahari Desert is a large arid to semi-arid sandy area that's located in southwestern Africa.

-The Kalahari Desert is not a true desert because it receives 3-10 inches of rain per year.

Open Ended

If you were to move to Africa in which geographical region would you like to move to and why?