Africa

Africa is bounded by the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. The Atlas range runs across the north-west, south of it lies the Sahara, and the semi-arid Sahel forms the band beneath the desert. Highlands and the Rift Valley run through the east, where Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is the highest point and Lake Victoria the largest lake. The Nile, Congo, Niger and Zambezi are the great rivers. The usual subregions are North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa, with Madagascar and other Indian Ocean islands often treated alongside the east. Scale matters: Cairo, Nairobi and Johannesburg are separate flights apart, not a day's drive.

Most of what you see on the ground comes from a handful of periods. In Egypt, the pyramids at Giza and the temples at Karnak, near Luxor, belong to the pharaonic Nile civilisation. Carthage, in Tunisia, preserves Punic and Roman remains. In Ethiopia, Aksum has the stelae of the Aksumite kingdom, and the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela are a pilgrimage site. Great Zimbabwe, in Zimbabwe, is the largest stone ruin of the Shona-speaking Zimbabwe culture. Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania is tied to the story of early humans. The Atlantic slave trade is remembered at Gorée Island in Senegal and Cape Coast Castle in Ghana, and apartheid-era imprisonment at Robben Island off Cape Town in South Africa. The medina of Fez in Morocco shows the Islamic cities of the Maghreb.

Long-haul traffic runs through a few hubs: Addis Ababa Bole (ADD), Johannesburg OR Tambo (JNB), Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta (NBO), Cairo (CAI), Casablanca Mohammed V (CMN), Lagos (LOS) and Cape Town (CPT). At Johannesburg, the Gautrain links the airport with Sandton and Pretoria on an 80 km commuter network. Rail is patchy: Morocco's Al Boraq high-speed line links Tangier and Casablanca, while TAZARA connects Dar es Salaam with Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia, though its passenger service has been interrupted, so check before planning around it. Ferries cross the Strait of Gibraltar between Tangier and Spain and run from Dar es Salaam to Zanzibar. Elsewhere, long-distance buses and shared taxis link neighbouring countries. Flying is the realistic choice across the Sahara, the Congo Basin, or between subregions; no through route connects Cairo to Cape Town.

Seasons differ by subregion, so there is no single best month. East Africa has a long rainy season roughly from March to May and shorter rains around November and December; the drier months from June to October suit safaris, including the Serengeti and Maasai Mara migration season. Southern Africa is driest from May to September, which is its winter, while Cape Town has wet winters and dry summers. Victoria Falls carries most water after the rains, around March to May. West Africa's coast is wet roughly from May to October, and the Harmattan brings dust from December to February. North Africa is more comfortable in spring and autumn, with the Sahara hottest in summer. Madagascar's cyclone season falls between January and March. Peaks include Christmas and New Year across South Africa, Easter, and Ramadan and Eid in Muslim-majority countries, whose dates shift each year.

Currencies are fragmented. Eight West African countries share the West African CFA franc, six Central African countries the Central African CFA franc, and South Africa's rand is linked to Lesotho, Eswatini and Namibia through the Common Monetary Area. Plugs vary: Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana mainly use three-pin type G, South Africa uses type M, and Egypt and Morocco use round-pin plugs. French helps across the Maghreb, West and Central Africa; English across much of East and Southern Africa; Swahili in East Africa; Portuguese in Angola and Mozambique. Traffic drives on the left in South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and on the right in Egypt, Morocco, Ethiopia and Nigeria.

• Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is Africa's highest point at 5,895 metres.
• The equator divides Africa into two almost equal halves.
• Lake Victoria is the largest lake on the continent.
• Zero latitude meets zero longitude in the Gulf of Guinea.
• Africa covers about 30 million square kilometres, second only to Asia.