How big is Africa, really?

As a matter of fact, Africa is the second largest continent. That fact is overridden by my visual memories of the world maps I saw at school. They were made with a Mercator projection which causes lands further from the equator to appear larger than they are. So North America appears to be larger than Africa.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, where Dayle and I have been working, is as large as the United States east of the Mississippi. The map may hide that fact, but it becomes so clear when working there.

Someone named Kai Kraus has done us all a favor by producing a unique map of Africa that illustrates its real size in an unusual and helpful way – by filling it with the US, China, India, and a number of other countries.

Here are some other facts about Africa’s size and diversity:

• • One square foot of land out of five are in Africa
• • More people live in Africa than in any other continent except Asia.
• • Almost one out of three countries in the world are in Africa.
• • The climate varies from hot and dry to hot and humid to mild.
• • Africa has snow
• • Africa is home to one species of penguin
• • It has both vast deserts and dense rain forests
• • Its peoples speak more than 1,800 languages

Here is a link to another map based on the same idea: http://bigthink.com/ideas/21084.