Africa Geography

Africa

Africa, a continent filled with astonishing geography. It was once a home to many beautiful and strong ancient civilizations. Faced with genocide in Rwanda, invaded in the age of imperialism, its people traded as slaves, and the land wanted for its rich resources. Placing second in the worlds largest continents Africa is home to the Sahara desert, and the Atlas mountains. Located at the north coast of Africa the Atlas Mountain range spans at about 1,200 miles. The Atlas mountain range is composed of six individual peaks. These ranges are the High Atlas, Anti- Atlas, Sahara Atlas, Middle Atlas, Tell Atlas, and the Aures. These Mountains are not just a sight for sore eyes they intertwined with Africa's weather as well. This mountain range

Also it does not allow heat to reach to the coast. The Sahara is found south of the Atlas Mountain range, Africa's most famous desert. This desert takes up land in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and much of Libya. The sahara is more then just hot sandy land, it has mountains and rivers as well. The highest mountain peak in the sahara is claimed by Emi Koussi its peak is about 11,204 feet high. Other existing mountains the the sahara are the Tibesti and Ahaggar. The Sahara has two rivers that are active all year long the Nile and the Niger. The Nile is located in the eastern part of the desert and the Niger is located southwest of the desert. Although there may be other small rivers or streams those do not last long, they come and go depending on the amount of rainfall. Parts of the desert are so dry they only get about 4 to 6 inches of rainfall per year. There is a zone in which the Sahara and Africa's vegetation rich land start to merge this zone is called Sahel. This land has about 24 inches of rain giving the land an opportunity to let its vegetation run wild.

Ghana started between the 6th and 7th century. This empire was part of the successful medieval trading points. Its most important trade items were salt and gold. Since the gold was such a good trading item the king was the only one who could own it; plus the ruler also put an income and outcome tax on gold. It was the home to the clans of the Soninke people whose language was Mande. Not much is know about this empires early rulers because no writings were found until the 8th century. The empire was originally called Wagadu by the people and the king. The empire wasn't controlled completely by the king himself, there were Tributary princes in charge as well. People believe that they may have served as chiefs. This empire did end up being quite strong. The empire was taken over by muslim almoravids around the 13th century. This lead to the disturbance of their trade and to the end of the Ghana empire. The Axum empire lasted from 100 AD to 940 AD and was located on a plateau on the Red Sea. It was a major trading system and traded items such as salt, rhino horns, ivory, and gold. Many different traders came through Adulis which was Axums seaport. Some of the traders came from as far as Rome and India. This empire was influenced highly by others such as the sabean people, and the people from The Kingdom of Kush. The kingdom of Great Zimbabwe began around the 11th