The True Size of Africa

true size of africa

Most maps do not show the true size of Africa due to the way they represent the surface of the Earth (a sphere) on a flat surface (the map). To illustrate the point, Kai Krause recently created a map which showed the outlines of other countries crammed inside the outline of the African continent. The Economist created a more accurate version of Krause’s map using a different type of map projection. The results are shown in the image above.