Facts about Africa for Kids Learn about the continent of Africa and African countries and animals

all about africa for kids africa is the second largest continent on the planet the african continent is also one of the most culturally ecologically and geographically diverse of all seven continents today we're going to learn some interesting facts about this amazing place africa is sometimes called the mother continent or the cradle of mankind because it's the oldest inhabited continent on the earth this means that humans whose scientists call homo sapiens and their ancestors have lived on the african continent the longest do you want to guess how long would you believe over 5 million years that's right 5 million years the african continent is the only place in the world where scientists have discovered fossils of humans and their ancestors through every stage of evolution these ancestors include astralopithecines our earliest ancestors homo habilis our tool-making ancestors and homo erectus an advanced relative to homo habilis that was able to walk upright today africa spans huge geographical area of about 12 million square miles divided into 54 countries the most countries of any continent on the planet it's home to over 3 000 indigenous peoples over 1 000 languages and has total population of about 1.1 billion people that's roughly 15 of the entire population of the earth the continent is surrounded almost entirely by water the mediterranean sea the red sea the indian ocean and the atlantic ocean it's divided in half almost equally by the equator and also includes the islands of cape verde madagascar mauritius seychelles and commeros the terrain across the continent includes large mountains tropical grassy savannas and deserts here's fun fact on the easternmost part of the african mainland is peninsula often referred to as the horn of africa it got this name because the land formation looks lot like horn just by looking at this map what country do you think is the largest if you said algeria you're right even though algeria is the largest country by area the country of nigeria is the most populated with 185 million people the smallest country is seychelles which is nation of 115 mostly uninhabited islands in the indian ocean directly east of the african continent other african countries include ethiopia with the second highest population on the continent egypt which acts as land bridge between africa and southwest asia and is the size of the countries of france and germany combined and kenya which is home to the city of nairobi the safari capital of the world africa is also home to one of the longest rivers in the world the nile which is over 4 000 miles long it runs south to north starting at lake victoria which is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world and ending at the mediterranean sea other cool geographical features include the sahara desert which is the largest hot desert in the world and mount kilimanjaro which is the highest point on the continent and the tallest volcano in the eastern hemisphere because the african continent is so large and its land is so diverse there are lots of exciting attractions that bring tourists from all over the world to african countries one of the most famous tourist attractions in northern africa is probably the pyramids at giza near cairo egypt these pyramids were built by the ancient egyptians around 2600 bc from over 2.5 million blocks of limestone can you imagine building such huge structures by hand and having them last so long it's pretty cool piece of history at volcanoes national park in the rwandan rainforest you can see mountain gorillas or golden monkeys in the wild if you happen to like waterfalls victoria falls on the border of zambia and zimbabwe would be amazing to visit it's over twice the height and width of niagara falls in north america and is considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world africa is also home to many animals like lions giraffes zebras and elephants to name few in fact every year there's great migration or movement of animals traveling from tanzania to kenya in january and then from kenya back to tanzania in september here's an interesting fact which animal do you think is more likely to attack humans lions crocodiles or hippopotamus if you said hippopotamus you're right more humans are injured or killed by hippos than any other animal in africa who would have thought that hippos were so aggressive now that we've learned little bit about the continent of africa let's review true or false africa is the largest continent in the world false it's the second largest fill in the blank the blank river is one of the longest rivers in the world did you say nile river that's right which country is the biggest buy area in africa which is the smallest the biggest is algeria and the smallest is seychelles great job everybody the next time you look at tall mountain or river you can think of mount kilimanjaro or the nile river if you're taking trip to the zoo you can visit some of the animals who are native to the african continent and maybe one day you can even visit this continent in real life hope you had fun learning with us visit us at learnbright.org for thousands of free resources and turnkey solutions for teachers and homeschoolers