The Ultimate in African Safaris and Vacations
Africa Like Never Seen Before
Some parts of East Africa have been renowned for their
concentrations of wild animals, such as the
elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard and black rhinoceros, though
populations have been declining under increased stress in recent times,
particularly the rhino and elephant.
The geography of East Africa is often stunning and scenic.
Shaped by global plate tectonic forces that have created the Great Rift Valley,
East Africa is the site of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya, the two tallest
peaks in Africa. It also includes the world's second largest freshwater lake
Lake Victoria, and the world's second deepest lake Lake Tanganyika.
The climate of East Africa is rather atypical of equatorial
regions. Because of a combination of the region's generally high altitude and
the rain shadow of the westerly monsoon winds created by the Rwenzori Mountains
and Ethiopian Highlands, East Africa is surprisingly cool and dry for its
latitude. Uganda for its beauty is popularly known as the "Pearl Of Africa"
Central Africa is a region that is primarily inhabited by Bantu peoples. Bantu languages predominate, with Chadic and Nilo-Saharan languages also spoken in some areas. Christianity, mixed with traditional beliefs in some places, is the predominant religion in Central Africa.
The distinction between Northern Africa and the rest of Africa is historically and ecologically significant because of the effective barrier created by the Sahara. Throughout history this barrier has culturally separated the North from the rest of Africa and, as the seafaring civilizations of the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans and others facilitated communication and migration across the Mediterranean, the cultures of North Africa became much more closely tied to Southwestern Asia and Europe than Sub-Saharan Africa. The Islamic influence in the area is significant, and North Africa, along with the Middle East, is a major part of the Arab World.
A growing number of researchers suspect that North Africa, and not East or South Africa, was the original home of the modern humans who first trekked out of the continent.
West Africa, if one includes the western portion of the Maghreb (Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia), occupies an area in excess of 6,140,000 km2, or approximately one-fifth of Africa. The vast majority of this land is plains lying less than 300 meters above sea level, though isolated high points exist in numerous countries along the southern shore of the region.
The northern section of West Africa is composed of semi-arid terrain known as Sahel, a transitional zone between the Sahara and the savannahs of the western Sudan forests form a third belt between the savannas and the southern coast, ranging from 160 km to 240 km in width.
Despite the wide variety of cultures in West Africa, from Nigeria through to Senegal, there are general similarities in dress, cuisine, music and culture that are not shared extensively with groups outside the geographic region.
The terrain of Southern Africa is varied, ranging from forest and grasslands to deserts. The region has both low-lying coastal areas, and mountains.In terms of natural resources, the region has the world's largest resources of platinum and the platinum group elements, chromium, vanadium, and cobalt, as well as uranium, gold, titanium, iron and diamonds
