17 Facts About North Africa

1. North Africa takes in roughly 10 countries, depending on where you draw its borders.

2. North Africa is home to diverse ecosystems, from sandy deserts to lush rain forests.

3. North Africa is the most populous and the only black continent.

4. North Africa is crossed from north to south by the prime meridian, which passes a short distance to the east of Accra, Ghana.

5. North Africa was colonized by European countries in the late 1800s.

6. North Africa is a relatively thin strip of land between the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean, stretching from Moroccan Atlantic coast to Egypt.

7. North Africa is home to many endangered animals such as the White and Black Rhinoceros.

8. North Africa is an amazing continent that is distinctly unique among the seven continents.

9. North Africa held an important place in the emperor Justinian's scheme for reuniting the Roman Empire and destroying the Germanic kingdoms.

10. North Africa entered the mainstream of Mediterranean history with the arrival in the 1st millennium bc of Phoenician traders, mainly from Tyre and Sidon in modern Lebanon.

11. North Africa is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the east and southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.

12. North Africa is expected to grow to 2.5 billion people by 2050.

13. North Africa is composed of two basic regions: the Maghreb and the Nile Valley.

14. North Africa Post's news desk is composed of journalists and editors, who are constantly working to provide new and accurate stories to NAP readers.

15. Today, the largest ethnic groups in North Africa are Arabs, Berbers and West Africans.

16. North Africa has three main geographic features: the Sahara desert in the south, the Atlas Mountains in the west, and the Nile River and delta in the east.

17. North Africa includes a number of Spanish and Portuguese possessions, Plazas de soberania, Ceuta and Melilla and the Canary Islands and Madeira.