I’ve always known that Africa was a very big continent. But I didn’t know it was this big! [via]
The African continent is apparently big enough to fit the United States, India, Argentina, Western Europe, and most of China in it’s space! In fact, all together, these 5 countries still do not make up the total square kilometers of Africa.
Anyway, on a related note, if you like maps, you’ll probably love The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World (11th ed.), available at Amazon.com for $157.50.
I wish I owned this book. If anybody wants to get me an easy gift, this book would be it.
That’s crazy!
See http://www.petersmap.com/
Comparan paises con un continente ….
Gran observación!
Los gringos ven a Africa como un todo, lo cual no es asi por mas que quieran. Igual nos quieren ver a nosotros, Republica Dominicana y Haiti, como un solo.
Ilusos!
Y si ponemos a rusia que seria? rusia china y india?
Es grande, pero no se puede hacer uno una idea si se comparan paises con un continente entero. Sud America es más pequeño que Africa, pos eso ya es una buena comparación no?
Me acabo de mirar el planeta en google, Rusia es mas grande que Africa entera :s
Arriba lo pone JM, mira este mapa:
See http://www.petersmap.com/
Arwen, te acaban de decir que todo es cuestión de perspectiva en los mapas. Mira en cualquier enciclopedia, y descubriras que aunque parezca en los mapas que Rusia es más grande que África, en realidad África tiene casi el doble de kilómetros cuadrados que Rusia (30.000.000 contra 17.000.000)
Grande en extensión pero muy pequeña en cuanto a riqueza. Reflexionemos.
Africa es enorme en riqueza, alli hay diamantes, bosques, petroleo….
está asediada por nuestro putrefacto mundo
comparad la poblacion entre Africa y el conjunto de esos paises…
Joder… pues si tienen que venir todos los de africa en españa… ¿donde los metemos?
Señor Desclot no se preocupe que cuando se fueron todos los europeos a äfrica a colonizar, esclavizar y a cometer todo tipo de genocídios no se vinieron todos a España. el mundo es interdependiente y que piensa usted que todo el mundo quiere venir a España, no se lo cre ni usted
Neither Europe nor Western Europe are a country.
You are comparing a whole continent against a few countries. You also say “5 countries”, but “Western Europe” is not a country.
However, Africa has been represented smaller than it is, because the maps become too big or the “important” countries too small. If somebody wants to watch an map of Africa with precision, he will use one specific, while a mapa mundi can be used to locate smaller countries like the ones in Europe.
Here is a mapamundi in real scale:
http://bp0.blogger.com/_OBLhGXFVaJg/R7MW5fJCOmI/AAAAAAAAApk/9gRjSWCHx1A/s1600-h/peters.jpg
I guess I got to explain also that Spain is NOT in South America, but in Europe. You think spaniards are poor, but we are like italians, including the culture.
Another thing important is that in South America are MANY countries, and just ONE of them is Mexico. When in your films you show spanish people, it doesn’t mind wherever he is (even Spain, in Europe). You always use the mexican speech. That’s no sense. Peru is different from Argentina, from Spain, from Cuba, from Mexico…
Sorry for the lesson, but I really think it was necessary. Please, excuse my english, but it’s not my first language.
Sorry Spaniard but Mexico isn’t a South American country. It is on the North America Continent. You are correct that the Spanish speaking countries, like the English speaking countries, are all different in the way they speak but Mexico, because of it’s close proximity has the biggest influence in Hollywood films.
Yes, you are right. In fact, we have two ways to divide America. South/North (Sudamérica/Norteamérica) and South/Middle/North (Sudamérica/Mesoamérica o Centroamérica/Norteamérica).
But to refer to spanish countries, we use “Latinoamérica” or “Hispanoamérica”. So, while I was writing, I mistook South America with “Latinoamérica”.
I also understand the reason why Hollywood uses mexicans to represent every spanish in the world. But it is a big mistake. It is not just the speech. The culture is totally different. Kechua are only in Peru, Mariachis in Mexico. People in Spain and Argentina are completely white skinned, not bronze (avoiding sun bath and exceptions, of course).
doh.
Mexico is not in South America, where the hell are you from?
you are comparing a continent against 5 random “countries.” maybe you should say, “Asia in perspective, It’s fucking huge”
Africa and Western Europe are not countries…where did u go to school?
Point still made that Africa is larger than many people may think. No need to be rude about it, Einstein.
Spaniard beat me to it; this comparison is ridiculous. What a waste of time.
what happened to france?
acabo de verme la chota.. es mas grande que las dos manos de tu hermana…. o la boca de tu vieja
great….with all those natural resources put in the hands of dictators…they deserve what they get…it’s darwinism in action….let them destroy themselves so the continent can be put to good use for the rest of the planet
Oh my. An honest idiot!
You should research a little, and then you’ll see that most African dictators are puppets of foreign countries and transnational corporations. It is not darwinism in action. It is ruthless capitalism in action, and showing it worst face.
I assume you would expect africans to die together with their governments. It is the only way that “the rest of the planet” (USA-China-Russia-Western Europe) can exploit african resources freely. Surely you are a citizen of one of these countries; that would explain your simple thinking, guided by a supremacist ideology which is reproduced by biased educational and mass-media systems.
Africa is a big continent
I had no idea about how big the Africa is before. By putting many countries on the Africa, it’s apparent to give us the direct perspective.
Could you then compare that map with one sized to population? Another instructive Africa image is the nighttime satellite view with so little urban light except for Cairo, Nigeria and S. Africa.
Population information would indeed be very useful alongside this, and much more relevant to almost any point this could be trying to make. A rough estimate using Wikipedia- Africa has nearly a billion people; China and India have over 1bn each, Europe (which is what’s pictured, how you could call all that “Western Europe” is beyond me) has 700m, US has 300m, and Argentina (why Argentina? I for one have no idea how big that is, and it surely suffers from the same shrinkage on maps as Africa does) has 40m. So that’s over 3 billion, three times Africa’s population.
Pity it’s such a giant shit-hole from top to bottom.
Wow! I always thought Africa was about the size India is in this pic! China at most! It’s awe-inspiring to see it in perspective like this! Thanks for sharing this!!!
Of course it’s bigger than everything else listed. Africa is a continent. The others listed are countries.
That’s dumb. That’s comparing five random countries to a continent.. who decided to throw Argentina in there? Does anyone know how many countries Africa is currently divided into anyways? Like 53. Asia only has 47 countries in it and it’s wayyy bigger. If it was one of those maps that compared visually the economic status this would be a whole different picture, but people will probably read this comment and laugh in a few years the way things are going.
You are comparing apples and oranges… countries to continent… try comparing the same thing and see the astonishing result diminish….
Africa, with 61 territories (remember, it’s an entire continent) is smaller than just three countries. Russia, Canada and the United States cover more than 36,000,000 square kilometers. In fact, Russia and Canada are equal 89% of Africa’s territory.
Africa is a continent not a country. I am pretty sure that Asia is the worlds largest continent(44,579,000 sq km) .
Damn I forgot to post Africa is the worlds 2nd largest with North America in third with 24,256,000 sq km.
africa is so big BUT THERES SO MUCH AIDS WE NEED TO HELP THEM MORE!!!
where’s alaska and hawaii?
no kidding, have any of you looked at a map recently, Africa is very big…great.
great….with all those natural resources put in the hands of dictators…they deserve what they get…it’s darwinism in action….let them destroy themselves so the continent can be put to good use for the rest of the planet
It is not your fault, before you write, read.