Editing Africa (section)

=== Natural Regions ===

The territory of Africa can be divided into three main sections: the northern plateau, the central and southern plateau, and the eastern highlands. Generally, altitudes increase across the continent from northwest to southeast and average about 560 meters. The coastal plains, with the exception of the Mediterranean and Guinea coasts, are generally quite narrow.

The main characteristic of the northern plateau is the presence of the Sahara Desert, a large desert whose surface occupies more than a quarter of Africa. Several mountainous regions rise at the edges of the northern plateau: to the northwest, the Atlas Mountains, formed by plateaus and steep, alpine-type ranges, extending from Morocco to Tunisia; to the southwest, the Fouta Djallon plateau; to the south, the Adamawa massif and the Cameroon Mountains. The Lake Chad basin, corresponding to a pronounced structural subsidence, is located almost in the center of the plateau.

The central and southern plateau, which is higher, has an average altitude of over 900 meters and includes numerous depressions, in particular the Congo River basin and the Kalahari Desert. To the south rises the Drakensberg Mountains, bordering the southern highlands, which extend for 1,100 km along the southeastern coast of the continent, from Transvaal to the Cape Province. At the extreme south is the Karoo, an arid plateau with a surface area of 259,000 km².

The eastern highlands, which constitute the highest part of the continent, extend from the Red Sea southwards to the Zambezi River, along the fault line of the Rift Valley. They have an average altitude of over 1,500 meters and, in the Ethiopian Highlands, reach 3,000 meters; the highest point is Ras Dashen (4,620 m), in northern Ethiopia. South of the Ethiopian Highlands rise numerous volcanic peaks, including Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya, and Mount Elgon.

The most characteristic feature of the eastern highlands is the Rift Valley, the long depression (actually a series of fractures with subsidence of the intervening plates) that extends from Anatolia, in eastern Turkey, through the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea, and then continues along the Red Sea to Lake Turkana. At the southern end of this lake, the Rift bifurcates around Lake Victoria and then rejoins at one end of Lake Nyasa, from where it descends along the Shire and Zambezi rivers, finally reaching the sea. West of the Rift Valley rises the Ruwenzori massif, which reaches a height of 5,109 m. The island of Madagascar is a continental fragment and is formed by a central plateau that extends in a north-south direction about 600 km from the eastern coast of Africa.

The African territory has been above sea level since the Precambrian era, but for long periods its internal depressions were submerged by the sea. This resulted in the sedimentary formations that cover vast stretches of the original platform, on which erosive forces have acted, leading to the formation of clastic rocks, such as sandstones, and various conglomerates. There are few alluvial soils deposited by rivers, even though the African continent has a hydrographic network with very extensive drainage basins. Being typically tropical, the soils are relatively sterile, lacking humus and subject to leaching due to heavy rainfall, and their composition is influenced by high temperatures. Desert soils, poor in organic content, cover vast areas. Among the most fertile soils are the so-called "chernozems" or black soils of East Africa, and the podzolic soils of the regions of West and Southern Africa.