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As can be seen from the name, South Africa occupies the entire southern part of the continent and is bathed by both the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans; the country is frowned upon internationally due to apartheid vis-à-vis blacks, abolished in 1992. The South African territory is largely characterized by the central plateau, which, depending on the area, has various altitudes, the coastal strip is quite tight; the economy is centered on the exploitation of mineral resources (diamonds, gold, coal) of which the subsoil is rich.

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PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTH AFRICA

The territory of South Africa is divided geographically into 5 main regions, the Great Escarpment, a long mountain range that crosses the country from the north-east (Draghi Mountains) to the south-west and then turns north and continues into Namibia and Angola; the Central Plateau on the internal limit of the Gran Scarpata, at an altitude between 1,900 meters and 1,000 meters, except near the Limpopo River to the north-east, where it slopes down to 500 meters; the Coastal Plains in the western and eastern extremities of the country, respectively 60 and 250 kilometers wide; the very narrow Coastal Belt on the Indian Ocean, with hills that often overlook the sea and finally the Cape Chains to the south-west, an articulated mountain system parallel to the Great Escarpment, which reaches a maximum height of 2,300 meters.

   The highest peaks in South Africa are found in the aforementioned Dragons Mountains, in particular near Lesotho, starting from Mafadi (3,450 m.) And Njesuthi (3,408 m.), Peaks located right along the border with this country.

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   The coasts, as previously mentioned, are high and with few natural ports, with the exception of the flatter north-eastern and north-western areas of the country, they are rather jagged where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet; along the coast there are few islands and all of modest size, Robben Island (5 Km²), 10 kilometers north of Cape Town and above all known because Mandela was imprisoned there for 18 years, the eldest; in addition to South Africa two larger but uninhabited islands, Marion Island (290 Km²) and Prince Edward Island (45 Km²), in the sub-Antarctic section of the Indian Ocean and more than 1,700 Km away from the marine city of Port Elizabeth; the coastal development is 2,800 kilometers.

Most of South African waters ends up in the Atlantic Ocean, thanks in particular to the Orange (1,770 km the South African stretch, 2,092 km in total), the most important river in the country, which originates in Lesotho (as the crow flies to less than 200 km from the Indian Ocean) and marks the border with Namibia in the final stretch; the other major waterways are the Vaal (1,210 km) and the Molopo (1,000 km), often dry and which marks a large part of the border with Botswana, both are tributaries of the Orange, the Limpopo (1,800 km in total), which, however, never completely enters South Africa, but acts as a border partly with Botswana and entirely with Zimbabwe, before flowing into the Indian Ocean in Mozambique and the Great Fish (692 km), the longest of the rivers that descend from the Great Escarpment to the Indian Ocean to the south.

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   South Africa does not have large natural lake basins, the largest being Lake Santa Lucia (350 Km²), an estuary lake close to the Indian Ocean; all the other main basins were born after the damming of water courses for energy purposes, following the construction of dams.

   Given the extension of the territory, the arrangement of the reliefs and the different influence of the two Oceans, South Africa has various climate situations, which is subtropical, with a continental character in the eastern part of the plateau, semi-arid in the western one, arid desert in the western area of ​​the country east of the Atlantic, where it rarely rains, subtropical Mediterranean in the southwestern coastal strip and finally oceanic along the rest of the coastal strip on the Indian Ocean; the temperatures are however quite similar and ideal for human settlement in a large part of the territory, given that they are mitigated by ocean currents on the coast and by the altitude in much of the interior of the country; the rainfall on the whole is not very abundant, greater in the easternmost part of the nation and generally concentrated in the warmer and humid winter months.

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TOURISM IN SOUTH AFRICA

About 10 million tourists visit South Africa every year, most of them coming from neighboring countries; the variety and beauty of landscapes, fauna and flora, as well as the rich culture, make this country one of the most desired destinations in Africa, after a difficult period in the sector in the last century.