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Africa: Western Africa
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Africa was a province of the Roman Empire. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day northern Tunisia, as well as the Mediterranean coast of modern-day western Libya along the Syrtis Minor. The Roman administrative province is shown, although in Carthaginian times the province was larger. The continent of Africa is named after the Roman province. The Arabs later named roughly the same region as the original province Ifriqiya, a rendering of Africa.
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West Africa is an area with a great span of geography, bioregions, and cultures. It is oriented west of an imagined north-south axis lying close to 10° east longitude. The Atlantic Ocean forms the western and southern borders of the region. The northern border is the Sahara Desert, with the Niger Bend generally considered the northernmost part of the region. The eastern border is less precise, with some placing it at the Benue Trough, and others on a line running from Mount Cameroon to Lake Chad.
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Africa is surrounded by oceans and seas: the Atlantic Ocean on the west, the Indian Ocean on the east, the Red Sea on the northeast, and the Mediterranean Sea on the north. Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world, lies off the southeastern coast. Other offshore islands include the Madeira Islands, Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, São Tomé, Príncipe, and Bioko, off the western coast; and the Comoros Islands, Seychelles, Mascarene Islands, and Socotra, off the eastern coast.
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Africa is the largest of the three great southward projections from the main mass of the Earth's surface. Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, it is joined to Asia at its northeast extremity by the Isthmus of Suez (transected by the Suez Canal), 130 km (80 miles) wide. (Geopolitically, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula east of the Suez Canal is often considered part of Africa, as well.) From the most northerly point, Cape Blanc (Ra’s al Abyad) in Tunisia (37°21′ N), to the most southerly point, Cape Agulhas in South Africa (34°51′15″ S), is a distance approximately of 8,000 km (5,000 miles); from Cape Verde, 17°33′22″ W, the westernmost point, to Ras Hafun in Somalia, 51°27′52″ E, the most easterly projection, is a distance (... approximately) of 7,400 km (4,600 miles). The coastline is 26,000 km (16,100 miles) long, and the absence of deep indentations of the shore is shown by the fact that Europe, which covers only 9,700,000 km² (3,760,000 square miles), has a coastline of 32,000 km (19,800 miles).
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Africa can be classified into broad regions based on the climatic conditions and their associated vegetation and soil types. The tropical rainforest climate starts at the Equator and extends toward western Africa. The region has rainfall up to 200 in. (500 cm) per year and continuously high temperatures averaging 79°F (26°C). The eastern equatorial region does not experience these conditions because of the highlands and the presence of strong seasonal winds that originate from southern Asia.
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Of all the world’s regions... Africa’s predominant migration is the most intraregional. The fluid migration within Western Africa, for instance, is partly due to the region’s status as a geopolitical and economic unit, but also to a common history, culture and ethnicity among many groupings. There is also significant international migration to former European colonial powers such as France, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Netherlands and Italy, among other countries.
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Western Africa