AFRICA ( Lat. Africa, from fer, inhabitant of Africa : of uncertain derivation, possibly of Pluenician origin. It seems to have been o•igin tidy the designation of Carthage, as the colony m Tyre, and later extended to the whole con tinent. It is certain that the name Africa was first applied to the neighborhood of Carthage— the part ti rst known to the Romans—and A f rygah, or Afrikiyoh, is still applied by the Arabs to the land of Tunis). A continent of the hemisphere, and in point of size the second of the great land divisions of the globe, with an area of about 11.250.000 square miles, ex clusive of islands. The continent ranks third in size only by virtue of an unwarranted composite naming of the American continents. Africa is an independent continent in even less degree than is either of the two Americas, for it forms the smith westerly extension of the Old World land-mass, and it lies in close proximity to Asia and Europe, with both of which continents it has, during long periods of past geological time, been intimately united by broad isthmuses. Tn form Africa con sists of two parts, a northern ellipsoid. with an cast and west longitudinal axis, comprising the Sahara-Sndan region, and a southern triangular limb attached to the southern side of the eastern half of the northern portion, aml consisting of the Comm region and the South African high lands. Somewhat north of the middle point of the eastern side of the continent, a massive triangu la• projection, the Somali Peninsula, extends al most 1000 miles toward the Indian Peninsula of Asia. The extreme length of Africa from ('ape Blanco in Tunis I lat. 37° 20' N.), its most north erly point. to its southern termination, ('ape Agulhas (lat. 3-1° .11' 5.1, is about 5000 miles in an almost north and south direction; and its greatest width from its western outpost, ('ape Verde (long. 17° 30' to its eastern apex, Ras Mann, on Cape Guardafui (long. 28' E.), is about 4500 miles in an almost 1.1'.4 and east direction. The northern and southern points of the continent arc almost equidistant from the equator; so that Africa, compared with South America, has a greater proportion of its area situated in the torrid zone.
At its northeast corner, by the Isthmus of Suez, Africa has a geographic union ninety miles ‘vide with Asia. Until a comparatively recent pe
riod it had a much closer union, for the lied Sea and the Gulf of Aden 110W occupy the deep,narrow basin of a rift valley that has been formed sinee Pliocene time. On the north, the Mediterranean Sea separates Africa from Europe by a wide and deep basin that is restricted at its western end, so that the shores of Spain and Morocco ap proach to within abort nine miles of each other. This northern Mediterranean coast is broken only by the broad and shallow embayment that holds the gulfs of Cabe,: and Sidra. The west ern extension, from Gibraltar to Cape Patinas, projects into the Atlantic Ocean with a regular ly rounded coast line that is almost unbroken by bays or peninsulas, eaves Blanco and Verde being inconspicuous projections. From Cape Palmas the coast runs eastward along the north shore of the I kill of Guinea for about 1200 unites to Kamerun and thence in an undulatingline,slight ly east of south, for nearly 3000 miles to Cape Agulhas at the southern extremity of the conti nent, Where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet. The eastern coast of the southern limb, washed by the Indian Ocean, extends from Cape Agulhas with gentle curves for 300)) miles to Cape Guar (taint at the apex of the Somali Peninsula.
The coast line of Africa is peculiar in that it presents a remarkably even front, almost un broken by bays and peninsulas. contrasting strongly in this respect with the coast lines of Europe. Asia, and North Anieriea, but resembling that of South America. The length of the coast line of Africa. miles, hears a smaller proportion to the shortest possible periphery of a regular figure of its own area (the proportion is IS to 1) than does that of any other continent. The only irregular portion of the coast line is on the northern edE.Te, where the Atlas Mountains send spurs into the Mediterranean Sea. This regularity of the shore line is undoubtedly Inc to the plateau eharacler and the stability of the larger part of the continent, which during great periods of geological time has stood emerged at approximately the same level above the ocean.