The Classic 7 Wonders Of Africa

On February 11, 2013, the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa were officially declared in Arusha, Tanzania. These wonders of nature were determined by insights from experts from around the world with a key focus on conservationists such as members of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Great Migration

 

The Great Migration is the greatest wildlife show on earth. The animals travel a total of 800km or more during each cycle.  More than 1,500,00 wildebeest and 500,000 Thomson Gazelle follow some 200,000 Zebra in 200 km round pilgrimage from Tanzania’s Serengeti to the south of Kenya’s Masai Mara in search of lush grazing grounds and life-giving water.

Wildbeest feed only on new shoots and very grass but do of course eat the longer grass once it has been trimmed by zebra or buffalo. It is for this reason they follow the zebra. Eland and Thomson’s gazelle also migrate but instead of following the main migration they just alternate between the plains and the woodlands. Grant’s gazelle do not migrate as they are not dependant on water.  Predator versus prey dominates the migration. Lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena and host of other, smaller predators, watched buy the ever-present vultures, gorge on their annual feast while, in the rivers, giant crocodile wait their turn. It is calving season for wildebeest at this time of year. With lots of calves born in the area, a host of predators like lions, leopard, hyena and cheetahs are around as they take advantage of the easy prey. During the migration around 250,000 wildebeest and 30,000 zebra are killed off every year as a result of predation by carnivores, but also from thirst, hunger, and exhaustion.

Although the migrations occur in a cycle between Tanzania and Kenya, most of the movement takes place in Tanzania which covers Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Loliondo Game Controlled Area, and Grumeti Reserve. In Kenya the migration stretches to the Maasai Mara Game Reserve in the North

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

 

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area spans vast expanses of highland plains, savanna, savanna woodlands and forests. Established in 1959 as a multiple land use area, with wildlife coexisting with semi-nomadic Maasai pastoralists practicing traditional livestock grazing, it includes the spectacular Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest caldera together with the Olmoti and Empakaai craters are part of the eastern Rift Valley, whose volcanism dates back to the late Mesozoic / early Tertiary periods, it is famous for its geology.  The property also includes Laetoli and Olduvai Gorge, which contain an important palaeontological record related to human evolution.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area has yielded an exceptionally long sequence of crucial evidence related to human evolution and human-environment dynamics, collectively extending from four million years ago to the beginning of this era, including physical evidence of the most important benchmarks in human evolutionary development.

The stunning landscape of Ngorongoro Crater combined with its spectacular concentration of wildlife is one of the greatest natural wonders of the planet. Spectacular wildebeest numbers (well over 1 million animals) pass through the property as part of the annual migration of wildebeest across the Serengeti ecosystem and calve in the short grass plains which straddle the Ngorongoro Conservation Area/Serengeti National Park boundary.

 

Mountain Kilimanjaro.

 

At 5,895m, Mountain Kilimanjaro is the tallest free standing mountain in the world, so it can truly be regarded as the roof of Africa. “As wide as all the world, great, high and unbelievably white,” Ernest Hemingway described. Now a world heritage site, its outstanding features are in three major volcanic centres, Shira in the west, Mawenzi in the East and the snow-capped Kibo in the centre. The most recent activity was about 200 years ago; the last major eruption was 360,000 years ago. The forests of the surrounding national park are inhabited by elusive elephant, leopard, buffalo, bushbuck, the endangered Abbott’s duiker, and numerous other small antelope, primates and rodents.  Mount Kilimanjaro was first climbed in 1889 by a German geologist Hans Meyer, an Austrian climber Ludwig Purtscheller and a local guide Yohani Kinyala Lauwo.  On Hans Meyer’s first attempt in 1887, he made it to the base of Kibo because he did not have equipment for heavy snow and ice. He made a second attempt in 1888 that was also unsuccessful.

1. Approximately 25,000 people attempt to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro annually but only approximately two-thirds are successful. Altitude-related problems is the most common reason climbers turn back.
2. South African Bernard Goosen twice scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro in a wheelchair. His first summit, in 2003, took nine days; his second, four years later, took only six. Born with cerebral palsy, Goosen used a modified wheelchair, mostly without assistance, to climb the mountain.
3. The fasted verified ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro occurred in 2001 when Italian Bruno Brunod summitted Uhuru Peak in 5 hours 38 minutes 40 seconds. The fastest roundtrip was accomplished in 2004, when local guide Simon Mtuy went up and down the mountain in 8:27.
4. The oldest person ever to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro was 87-year-old Frenchman Valtee Daniel The youngest person to climb Kilimanjaro is American Keats Boyd. He climbed Kilimanjaro at 7 years old in 2008. The minimum age for climbing Kilimanjaro is 10 years old, but exceptions are made with children that have significant experience trekking.
5. Nearly every climber who has summitted Uhuru Peak, the highest summit on Kibo’s crater rim, has recorded his or her thoughts about the accomplishment in a book stored in a wooden box at the top.

 

The Nile River

 

 

The Nile River, considered the longest river in the world, is approximately 4,258 miles (6,853 kilometers) long. Flowing northward through the tropical climate of eastern Africa and into the Mediterranean Sea, the river passes through 11 countries: Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt.

The Nile is formed by two principal streams; the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The White Nile originates in East Africa (the headstreams of which flow into Lakes Victoria and Albert), and the Blue Nile originates in Ethiopia. The two branches join at Khartoum (the capital city of Sudan). The Nile waters flow at an average volume of 300 million cubic meters (79.2 billion gallons) per day, and It takes approximately three months for the waters near the town of Jinja, Uganda (the point where the Nile leaves Lake Victoria), to reach the Mediterranean Sea. Near the Mediterranean Sea the river splits into two branches, the Rosetta Branch (to the west) and the Damietta (to the east). Both flow into the Mediterranean Sea. Numerous animals live in and around the river; Nile crocodiles, Nile monitors, frogs, mongooses, turtles, tortoises, hippopotamus, wildebeest, baboons, and over three hundred species of birds. 

 

The Red Sea Reef

Geologically, it started to develop when the plates of Arabia and East Africa shifted away from each other and eventually broke apart, around 20-30 million years ago. The origin of the word Red Sea is from the Greek words Erythra Thalassa. The sea is named after the Red color because of the seasonal blossoms of red-colored cyanobacterium called Trichodesmium erythraeum, present near the surface of the water.

The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. To the north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Suez Canal. It is one of the saltiest seas of the world because of its high evaporation. Owing to its high surface temperatures, Red sea is one of the warmest seas of the world. The Red Sea Reef stretches over 1,240 miles along the coast of Egypt, Sudan, and Eritrea and it is home to over 1,100 species of fish with approximately 10% being exclusive to the area. The reef features include abundant aquatic life, platforms, lagoons, and cylinders. The sea is known for its spectacular recreational snorkeling and diving adventures.

 

Sahara Desert

 

The Sahara is the world’s largest hot desert and one of the harshest environments on the planet. It is third largest desert overall after Antarctica and the Arctic, which are cold deserts.  At 3.6 million square miles (9.4 million square kilometers), the Sahara, which is Arabic for “The Great Desert,” engulfs most of North Africa. The desert covers large sections of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia.

Half of the Sahara receives less than an inch of rain per year, and the rest receives up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) per year. The infrequent rain is usually torrential. The Sahara’s northeasterly winds can reach hurricane level and often give rise to sand storms and dust devils. The highest peak in the Sahara is the volcano Emi Koussi at 11,204 feet (3,415 meters) in the Tibesti Mountains in northern Chad. The desert’s other mountains and mountain ranges include the Aïr Mountains, Hoggar (Ahaggar) Mountains, Saharan Atlas, Tibesti Mountains, Adrar des Iforas and the Red Sea hills.

The Sahara’s environment requires that the wildlife adapt to hyper-arid conditions, fierce winds, intense heat and wide temperature swings. In the heart of the Sahara, most mammals are relatively small, which helps to minimize water loss. They often meet their water needs from their diets. They take refuge in burrows during the day, hunting and foraging primarily at night, when temperatures are lower. They have developed anatomical adaptations such as the fennec fox’s large ears, which help dissipate heat, and its hairy soles, which protect its feet. The Sahara hosts some 70 species of mammals, 90 species of resident birds, 100 species of reptiles, and numerous species of arthropods. The Sahara’s most famous animal is the dromedary camel, domesticated for thousands of years and long used by the desert nomads.

Major cities located in the Sahara include Cairo, Egypt; Tripoli, Libya; Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania; Tamanrasset, Ouargla, Bechar, Hassi Messaoud, Ghardaia, and El Oued in Algeria; Timbuktu in Mali; Agadez in Niger; and Faya-Largeau in Chad.

Okavango Delta.

 

The Okavango Delta is a large low gradient Inland Delta that exists where the Okavango River empties onto open land, flooding the savanna and creating a unique and inland delta.  The area includes permanent swamps which cover approximately 6,000 sq. km along with up to 15,000 sq.km of seasonally flooded grassland. The inscribed World Heritage property encompasses an area of 2,023,590 ha with a buffer zone of 2,286,630 ha. The Okavango Delta is one of a very few large inland delta systems without an outlet to the sea, known as an endorheic delta, its waters drain instead into the desert sands of the Kalahari Basin.The delta swells almost three times in size between March and August, The Okavango Delta is very flat, varying just two meters in height.

Considered to be one of the ecological wonders of the world, the Okavango Delta encompasses a wide diversity of wildlife habitats including lagoons, channels, grasslands, woodlands and more than 150,000 palm-fringed islands.  the Okavango Delta exhibits one of the richest pack densities in Africa with a myriad of species are found within the delta including African Bush Elephant, African Buffalo, Hippopotamus, Topi, Blue Wildebeest, Giraffe, Nile crocodile, Lion, Cheetah, Leopard, Brown Hyena, Spotted Hyena, Greater Kudu, Sable Antelope, Black Rhinoceros, White Rhinoceros, Plains Zebra, etc. In addition to the large animals the Okavango Delta also supports over 500 species of birds and 85 recorded species of fish, 155 species of reptile and 1500 species of plant.

Source content: sevennaturalwonders.org