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.
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 and 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.
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.
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 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.
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
now exist at Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London,
Durban and Richard's Bay.
On dry land, going from west to east, the country
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.
There are only two major rivers: 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.
South Africa is home to:
- the largest land-mammal - the African elephant
- the smallest mammal - the shrew, which is the size of a finger tip
- the tallest mammal - the giraffe
- the fastest land-mammal on earth - the cheetah
- the largest reptile - the leatherback turtle
- the largest African antelope - the eland
- the largest bird in the world - the ostrich
- the heaviest flying bird in the world - the kori bustard
- the largest rodent in Africa - the porcupine
- the largest rhino population in Africa
