Geography and climate

South Africa's geography

South Africa occupies the southern tip of Africa, its long coastline stretching more than 2 500km from the desert border with Namibia on the Atlantic coast, southwards around the tip of Africa, then north to the border with subtropical Mozambique on the Indian Ocean.

The low-lying coastal zone is narrow for much of that distance, soon giving way to a mountainous escarpment that separates it from the high inland plateau. In some places, notably the province of KwaZulu-Natal in the east, a greater distance separates the coast from the escarpment.

Size and provinces

South Africa is a medium-sized country, with a total land area of slightly more than 1.2-million square kilometres, making it roughly the same size as Niger, Angola, Mali and Colombia.

It is one-eighth the size of the US, twice the size of France and over three times the size of Germany. South Africa measures some 1�600km from north to south, and roughly the same from east to west.

Map: Mary Alexander, MediaClubSouthAfrica.com

The country has nine provinces, which vary considerably in size. The smallest is tiny and crowded Gauteng, a highly urbanised region, and the largest the vast, arid and empty Northern Cape, which takes up almost a third of South Africa's total land area.

To find out more about South Africa's provinces, follow the links in the box on the right.

Borders

On dry land, going from west to east, South Africa shares long borders with Namibia and Botswana, touches Zimbabwe, has a longitudinal strip of border with Mozambique to the east, and lastly curves in around Swaziland before rejoining Mozambique's southern border.

In the interior, nestled in the curve of the bean-shaped Free State, is the small mountainous country of Lesotho, completely surrounded by South African territory.

Cities

South Africa has three capitals: Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Pretoria. The Western Cape city of Cape Town, where the country's Parliament is found, is the legislative capital. In the Free State, Bloemfontein is the judicial capital, and home to the Supreme Court of Appeal. In Gauteng province, Pretoria, where the Union Buildings and a large proportion of the civil service are found, is the administrative capital, and the ultimate capital of the country.

The largest and most important city is Johannesburg, the economic heartland of the country. Other important centres include Durban and Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal, and Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape.

Climate and topography

Although the country is classified as semi-arid, it has considerable variation in climate as well as topography.

The great inland Karoo plateau, where rocky hills and mountains rise from sparsely populated scrubland, is very dry, and gets more so as it shades in the north-west towards the Kalahari desert. Extremely hot in summer, it can be icy in winter.

Habitat types: South Africa has seven major terrestrial biomes, or habitat types - broad ecological life zones with distinct environmental conditions and related sets of plant and animal life.

In contrast, the eastern coastline is lush and well watered, a stranger to frost. The southern coast, part of which is known as the Garden Route, is rather less tropical but also green, as is the Cape of Good Hope - the latter especially in winter.

This south-western corner of the country has a Mediterranean climate, with wet winters and hot, dry summers. Its most famous climatic characteristic is its wind, which blows intermittently virtually all year round, either from the south-east or the north-west.

The eastern section of the Karoo does not extend as far north as the western part, giving way to the flat landscape of the Free State, which though still semi-arid receives somewhat more rain.

North of the Vaal River, the Highveld is better watered, and saved by its altitude (Johannesburg lies at 1 740m; its average annual rainfall is 760mm) from subtropical extremes of heat. Winters are cold, though snow is rare.

Further north and to the east, especially where a drop in altitude beyond the escarpment gives the Lowveld its name, temperatures rise: the Tropic of Capricorn slices through the extreme north. This is also where one finds the typical South African Bushveld of wildlife fame.

Those looking for an opportunity to ski in winter head for the high Drakensberg mountains that form South Africa's eastern escarpment, but the coldest place in the country is Sutherland in the western Roggeveld Mountains, with midwinter temperatures as low as -15�C.

The deep interior provides the hottest temperatures: in 1948 the mercury hit 51.7�C in the Northern Cape Kalahari near Upington.

See: South Africa's weather and climate

Oceans and rivers

By far South Africa's biggest neighbour is the ocean - or two oceans, which meet at the southwestern corner. Its territory includes Marion and Prince Edward Islands, nearly 2 000km from Cape Town in the Atlantic Ocean.

The cold Benguela current sweeps up from the Antarctic along the Atlantic coast, laden with plankton and providing rich fishing grounds. The east coast has the north-to-south Mozambique/Agulhas current to thank for its warm waters. These two currents have a major effect on the country's climate, the ready evaporation of the eastern seas providing generous rainfall while the Benguela current retains its moisture to cause desert conditions in the west.

Several small rivers run into the sea along the coastline, but none are navigable and none provide useful natural harbours. The coastline itself, being fairly smooth, provides only one good natural harbour, at Saldanha Bay north of Cape Town. A lack of fresh water prevented major development here.

Nevertheless, busy harbours exist at Richards Bay and Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, East London and Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, and Mossel Bay and Cape Town in the Western Cape. An additional commercial port, the Port of Ngqura, is being developed off the coast from Port Elizabeth.

There are only two major rivers in South Africa: the Limpopo, a stretch of which is shared with Zimbabwe, and the Orange (with its tributary, the Vaal) which runs with a variable flow across the central landscape from east to west, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean at the Namibian border.

In so dry a country, dams and irrigation are extremely important: the largest dam is the Gariep on the Orange River.

SAinfo reporter and MediaClubSouthAfrica.com. Sources:



	A perspective satellite image taken by Landsat in February 2000, showing Cape Town and the Cape of Good Hope. The city centre lies in Table Bay, at lower left, next to Table Mountain. The perspective is computer generated, combining a photograph with elevation data collected by radar (Image copyright Nasa Visible Earth)



	A composite satellite image of South Africa (Image: Nasa)

South Africa's provinces

Maps of South Africa

Find out exactly where you're going with these handy map websites.

South Africa's climate

Warm, temperate conditions and a seemingly endless supply of sunshine.

Did you know?

First signs of life

Mountains in the Barberton area of South Africa's Mpumalanga province have yielded minute fossils, dated to about 3�300 million years ago, that are thought to be among the first signs of life on Earth.

Ancient land

The mountains in the far south of South Africa, such as the Hottentots Holland and Drakenstein ranges, are older than the Alps or Himalayas.

Zulu capital

Ulundi, the co-capital (with Pietermaritzburg) of the province of KwaZulu-Natal, was founded as the capital of the Zulu kingdom by King Cetshwayo in the late nineteenth century.