Africa

Africa is the second and the world's second largest continent after Asia. About 30.2 million kilometers (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the area of total land area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people (2009, see table) in 61 areas, representing about 14.72% of the human population in the world.

The continent is in the north by the Mediterranean Sea, both the Suez Canal and Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula in the northeast Indian Ocean in the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent has 54 sovereign countries, including Madagascar, groups of several islands and the Sahara Arab Democratic Republic, a Member of the African Union, whose rule is contested by Morocco.

Africa, especially in central-east Africa, is widespread in the scientific community to the origin of man and the clade Hominidae (apes) are considered, as demonstrated by the discovery of early hominids and their ancestors, and which were later to about dates back seven million years - including Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Australopithecus africanus, A. afarensis, Homo erectus, habilis, ergaster HH - with the first homo sapiens (modern man) is found in Ethiopia dated to 200,000 years.

Africa spans the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas, it is the only continent on which end of the temperate north and south temperate zones.