Africa The second largest continent in the world, Africa covers 20 percent of the Earth's land surface. Bounded on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the east by the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and on the south by the mingling waters of the Atlantic and Indian oceans, Africa measures about 5,000 miles from north to south and is almost equally bisected by the Equator. It’s the only continent to stretch from the northern to the southern temperate zone. More than half the world’s poorest countries are in Africa. Next