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Equatorial Africa is an ambiguous term that sometimes is used to refer either to the equatorial region of sub-Saharan Africa traversed by the Equator, [1] more broadly to tropical Africa or in a biological and geo-environmental sense to the intra-tropical African rainforest region.
One common approach categorizes Africa directionally, e.g., by cardinal direction (compass direction): North Africa lies north of the Sahara and runs along the Mediterranean coast. West Africa is the portion roughly west of 10° east longitude, excluding Northern Africa and the Maghreb. West Africa contains large portions of the Sahara Desert ...
Africa straddles the equator and the prime meridian. It is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to the southern temperate zones. [17] The majority of the continent and its countries are in the Northern Hemisphere, with a substantial portion and a number of countries in the Southern Hemisphere.
Road sign marking the equator near Nanyuki, Kenya. The latitude of the Earth's equator is, by definition, 0° (zero degrees) of arc.The equator is one of the five notable circles of latitude on Earth; the other four are the two polar circles (the Arctic Circle and the Antarctic Circle) and the two tropical circles (the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn).
Satellite view of Africa 1916 physical map of Africa. The average elevation of the continent approximates closely to 600 m (2,000 ft) above sea level, roughly near to the mean elevation of both North and South America, but considerably less than that of Asia, 950 m (3,120 ft). In contrast with other continents, it is marked by the comparatively ...
South Africa is the largest producer of platinum, with 80% of the total world's annual mine production and 88% of the world's platinum reserve. [167] Sub-Saharan Africa produces 33% of the world's bauxite, with Guinea as the major supplier. [168] Zambia is a major producer of copper. [169] The Democratic Republic of Congo is a major source of ...
Both philosophers theorized the Earth divided into three types of climatic zones based on their distance from the equator. Like Parmeneides, thinking that the area near the equator was too hot for habitation, Aristotle dubbed the region around the equator (from 23.5° N to 23.5° S) the "Torrid Zone."
Therefore, landmasses such as Greenland and Antarctica appear far larger than they actually are relative to landmasses near the equator. Nowadays the Mercator projection is widely used because, aside from marine navigation, it is well suited for internet web maps .