L'Afrique c'est grand

With so many topics to explore and limited space (just 1,250 characters), we’ve chosen to focus on the true size of Africa and how it's often misrepresented on maps. First, Africa is massive—much larger than most people realise. You can indeed fit Europe, China, and the United States into it with room to spare! Kai Krause's "Geographic Tetris" exercise vividly illustrates this astonishing fact: https://cvc.li/hRYRn The actual surface area of Africa is accurately reported, but the way it appears on traditional maps is distorted. This is because of the Mercator projection, a map design dating back to 1538. It was created to aid European navigation but inflates the Northern Hemisphere while compressing the South, shrinking Africa in the process. Another map, the Peters projection, was adopted by the UN in 1961 to correct this imbalance. Although it provides a more accurate scale, it’s still not perfect in terms of visual representation. To truly appreciate Africa’s size and importance, this graphic serves as a powerful visual reminder: https://cvc.li/tahSx