Africa Quick Overview
Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30,221,532 km including adjacent islands, it covers 6.0% of the Earth's total surface area, and 20.4% of the total land area.
With more than 900,000,000 people (as of 2005) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.
Africa is widely regarded in the scientific community to be birthplace of humans and the Hominidae tree.
Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones. Because of the lack of natural regular precipitation and irrigation as well as glaciers or mountain aquifer systems, there is no natural moderating effect on the climate except near the coasts.