It's interesting how large the continent of Africa really is.
For those that might want to keep a copy of this map, I found the graphic without the "SAMPLE" written across it.



Link to download:
http://www.bu.edu/africa/images/map.gif

Commonly found maps have misrepresented the size of the entire southern hemisphere in relation to the north since the 16th century. Below is a standard Mercator map illustrating the distortion.



The Peters Projection map below better illustrates actual land mass differences.


Best,

JohnTheGreek

Terry ,

You never stop finding this neat stuff, thanks.

No matter how big it is, people will make sure to find a way of cutting every last stump for coal, snaring the last antelope and making a shanty town or subsistence farm on the last acre of virgin bushvelt...
NOT YET, thank God.

For some reason it awalys seemed bigger to me that overlay map is cool, it puts it in perspective. thanks for the post

That map showing "North" and "South" in't geographically correct. The equator runs in the Indian Ocean SOUTH of India. Also through central Congo and Northern Brazil.

Maybe its a "political" North and South!?

Africa really isn't that big. It's just that thankfully it is relatively empty and undeveloped that makes it seem so. Imagine what a billion Chinese would do to the place.

South Africa is much smaller than South Australia as an example. SA (in OZ ) has 1.2 million people. SA (in Africa ) has more than 35 million people and growing everyday.

The Northern Hemisphere maps show the curvature of the Earth incorrectly. For example Greenland is about the same size of Queensland. The countries of Canada, Russia etc are usually way over-sized.

I can just imagine one of the farms in Texas selling African game saying:

"Come hunt eland in Bahr A Gazal, Sudan, without leaving the USA"