The World's Continents

The World's Continents

The earth's seven continents are Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia, and Antarctica. Let us explore the geography of the seven continents and its effect on travel. Use a globe, an atlas, or maps to help you study geography.

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Click each icon below to learn about each of the world's continents.

Guide MAP

Antarctica

Australia

Asia

South America

North America

europe

africa

AFRICA

Positioned on the Equator, Africa is a vast continent with many different ecosystems ranging from vast deserts to sweeping savannahs and dense tropical rain forests. In addition to millions of humans, inhabitants of the savannah include elephants, lions, zebras, and giraffes — all animals associated with this continent. Agriculture is the main industry on this continent. But infrequent rainfall complicates the ability to grow crops as much of the land is a desert.Click each + icon to learn about Africa.

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North and Central America

Although North America is the third largest continent, it supports less than 10% of the world's population. The continent is home to the longest border between two countries in the world — the United States and Canada share an 8,900-kilometer border (5,525 miles). The climate ranges from frozen tundra in the north, to scorching deserts in the interior, to dense tropical rainforests in the south.Click each + icon to learn about North and Central America.

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South America

The continent of South America is blessed with a tremendous variety of topographical features including dramatic mountains, glaciers, fjords, deserts, tropical rain forests, beaches, and the world's highest navigable lake, Lake Titicaca, between Peru and Bolivia. Although the Andes Mountains form a barrier in much of South America, the continent provides some of the world's most valuable harvests like coffee, timber wood, grain, and farm animals.Click each + icon to learn about South America.

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Asia

Asia is the largest of Earth's seven continents. With outlying islands, it covers an estimated 44.5 million square kilometers, or about 30% of the world's total land area. Most geographers regard Asia as bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the Bering Strait and the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the southwest by the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.Click each + icon to learn about Asia.

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Europe

Although called a continent, Europe is just the fifth of the Eurasian landmass, which is made up primarily of Asia. Most geographers point to the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, part of the Caspian Sea, and the Caucasus Mountains as forming the boundary between Europe and Asia. The Mediterranean Sea separates it from Africa. The northernmost point of the European mainland is Cape Nordkinn, Norway. The southernmost, Punta de Tarifa, in southern Spain near Gibraltar.Click each + icon to learn about Europe.

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Australia

The smallest, flattest, and except for Antarctica, this is the driest continent in the world. Again, except for Antarctica, it is also the least populous, with less than 20 million inhabitants. In comparison, the metropolitan area of Los Angeles has roughly the same population as the entire continent of Australia.Click each + icon to learn about Australia.

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Antarctica

Located at the extreme southern end of the globe is Antarctica, the world's most isolated and least visited continent. Aside from scientific researchers who make their home here, humans have uninhabited the continent, largely because of the extreme cold that the region experiences year-round. 98% of the continent lies buried under ice, averaging 2.3 kilometers deep.Click each + icon to learn about Antarctica.

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