Bet You Didn’t Know These 16 Things About Africa?

Think you know all about Africa? Think Again! At least 10 of 16 these facts will truly shock you:

• The lowest point in Africa is Lake Assal which is located in central-eastern Djibouti at the western end of Gulf of Tadjoura in the Tadjoura Region, touching Dikhil Region, at the top of the Great Rift Valley. The crater lake lies 155 meters below sea level. This water body also takes the third position for lowest land depression on Earth following the Dead Sea and Sea of Galilee. The level of saltiness in the lake is so high becoming 10 times more concentrated than that of the sea. Assal is the world’s largest salt reserve, which is presently exploited under four concessions awarded in 2002 at the southeast end of the lake.
• The continent’s diversity fully supports over 1,500 different languages which represent a quarter of the world’s languages which are spoken only in Africa.
• The world’s largest living land animal, the African elephant, which can weigh between 6 and 7 tons is found in Africa. Males African elephants stand 3.2–4.0 m (10–13 ft) tall at the shoulder while their female counterparts stand 2.2–2.6 m (7–9 ft) tall. African elephants are mostly found in Eastern, Southern and West Africa.
• The Nile is the longest river in the world measuring about 6,670 km (4,160 miles) in length although the Nile is usually associated with Egypt, only 22% of the Nile’s course runs through Egypt the rest flows through Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya,Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Sudan. The banks of river Nile saw the origin of the oldest civilizations in the world
• One last surprising fact about Africa is that the continent is blessed with many natural wonders and amazing tourist destinations of which the Lake Victoria is one of them. It forms the largest lake in Africa and the second-largest freshwater lake in the world, covering an area of 26,830 square miles (69,490 square kilometers) but  it also contains the largest sheet of falling water in the world in terms of area.
• Timbuktu, Mali is home of one of the oldest universities in the world, established in 982 CE. By the 12th century, the city was such an intellectual hub that National Geographic has referred to it as the Paris of the medieval world. I guess the Spice Girls didn’t take geography because in one of their self penned lyrics they believed Timbuktu to be located in China!
• The world’s biggest frog is found in Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon.Named the Goliath frog, it can grow up to be a foot long and weigh up to 8 lb.
• Ethiopia is the only African country with its own alphabet. It’s also the world’s oldest living alphabets – Ethiopic – and probably one of the longest with its 345 letters
• People living in what is currently Swaziland were the world’s first miners.In the late 1960s a hematite mine was found in the Ngwenya mountain range along with 300,000 artifacts and stone-made mining tools that were later dated to be 43,000 years old!
• Graca Machel is the only women to have ever been first lady of two different countries (Mozambique and South Africa).
• Sudan has more than 200 pyramids, double the number found in Egypt.The Meroe pyramids were part of the Nubian Kingdom of Kush and are up to 4,600 years old.
• Almost half of the gold ever mined on Earth has come from a single place – Witwatersrand, South Africa.
• Africa is the world’s second driest continent (after Australia).
• Africa has approximately 30% of the earth’s remaining mineral resources.
• Nigeria is fourth largest oil exporter in the world, and Africa’s biggest oil producer with about 2.2 million barrels produced every day. Top 10 oil producers in order of total exports: Nigeria, Algeria, Angola, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Congo, Gabon, South Africa.
• The continent has the largest reserves of precious metals with over 40% of the gold reserves, over 60% of the cobalt, and 90% of the platinum reserves

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