Geography of Angola

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Map of Angola
Relief map
The Angolan provinces
The main rivers of Angola

Angola is between 4 ° 22 'and 18 ° 02' south latitude and 11 ° 41 'and 24 ° 05' east longitude. The country is roughly divided into a narrow depression along the Atlantic coast, which rises to the east, to the interior, to the highlands of Bié . Several large rivers drain the highlands to the north, east and south. In Eastern Angola there is a wide dry savannah plain that is only sparsely populated. The total area is 1,246,700 km².

Limits

The land borders of Angola have a total length of 5198 km. The Cabinda exclave borders the Republic of the Congo (201 km) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (225 km). The rest of the national territory borders on the DR Congo in the north and northeast (2286 km), in the east on Zambia (1110 km) and in the south on Namibia (1376 km). The Angolan coastline on the Atlantic Ocean has a length of 1600 km.

National nature

Coastal region

Angola has only a narrow coastal lowland stretching over 1,400 kilometers along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean . On the coast are three of the five largest cities in the country, namely the capital Luanda and the cities of Benguela and Lobito . The northernmost part of the Angolan coastal area forms the Cabinda province , which is an Angolan exclave. Defined by the Democratic Republic of Congo scoring Congo estuary separated from the Angolan territory.

The Congo is at this point nearly 150 km the border between the DRC and Angola. To the south there is a rather sparsely populated hill country, which is traversed by some medium-sized rivers that flow into the Atlantic. These include the Mbridge , which flows out at N'Zeto , as well as the Loge (mouth at Ambriz ) and Dande (mouth at Barra do Dande ).

About 350 kilometers south of the mouth of the Congo is the Angolan capital Luanda , which with around 5 million inhabitants is by far the largest city in the country and the undisputed economic and trading center of Angola. Luanda lies in an alluvial plain between the mouths of the Bengo and Cuanza rivers , both of which come from the Bié highlands . The 965 km long Cuanza is the most important river in central Angola, as it is navigable from its mouth 200 km upstream.

The Quiçama National Park is located south of Luanda. The flat coastline narrows towards the south, after all the highlands here almost reach the coast. Large rivers that flow into the Atlantic between Luanda and Benguela, 440 km south , are, for example, Longa , Queve , Cubal , Balombo and Catumbele . Benguela itself is located at the mouth of the Caimbambo . Beyond the third largest city in the country, the vegetation changes into thorn savannah and the population density is low. The semi-desert areas begin south of the Serra da Neve and merge into the Namib desert from the city of Moçâmedes . The rivers which flow into the Atlantic south of Benguela are of no great importance. B. Hanja , Bentiaba and Bero . The extreme southwest of Angola, which is already part of the Namib Desert, has been declared the Iona National Park . The island of Ilha dos Tigres is located almost 10 kilometers off the coastline . The Cunene forms the southern border with Namibia .

The climate of the entire coastal region is influenced by the cold Benguela Current. There is a short rainy season from February to April in the center and south of the region . Winters are mild, summers hot and dry. In Cabinda and the northern coastal region, it rains throughout the year.

Highlands

East of the coastal region in Angola joins an up to 500 km wide highland belt, which extends from the Lower Guinea Sill in the north over almost 1400 km to the Cunene river plain and merges there into the mountains of Namibia. The highlands, the largest of which is the Bié highlands , are largely covered by humid savannah or, in the province of Cuanza Norte, by tropical high-altitude forest. They are used to grow coffee (between Caxito and Uíge ), maize (north of Huambo in the Cutato Valley ) and cotton (around Cuango ).

Many rivers in the region have their origins in the highlands. They drain both via the Congo or directly to the Atlantic and via the Zambezi to the Indian Ocean .

Congo River System :

  • Kwango (Cuango) - heading north to the Kwilu
  • Kwilu (Kouilou) - heading north to the Congo River
  • Kasaï (Cassai) - heading east to the Congo River

Zambezi river system

  • Luena - heading east to the Upper Zambezi
  • Lungé-Bungo (Lunguebungu) - heading southeast towards the Zambezi
  • Luanginga - heading southeast towards the Zambezi
  • Cuando (Kuando) - towards the southeast to the Zambezi
  • Cuito - heading southeast to the Okavango
  • Cubango / Okavango - towards the south / southeast

Rivers to the Atlantic :

  • Kunene (Cunene) - heading southwest towards the Atlantic
  • Cuvo-Queve - heading northwest towards the Atlantic
  • Kwanza (Kuanza) - heading north to the Atlantic

The largest city in the entire region is Huambo , the capital of the province of the same name and the country's second largest city. There is no clear information about the number of inhabitants, but there are more than 200,000 residents. The province of Huambo also has the highest peaks in the highlands, including the Môco , Angola's highest mountain at 2,619 m. The water-rich rivers of the highlands are also used to generate energy in some places. There are hydropower plants on the Cunene near Matala ( Matala dam - Huíla province ), the Gove dam (Huambo province) and at Calueque ( Calueque dam - Cunene province); on the Cuanza near Dondo (province of Cuanza Norte) and on some smaller rivers.

Besides the Cunene and Cuanza, the most important rivers of the highlands are the Cuango , a left tributary of the Kasai . This rises near Luena in the hilly dry savannah of eastern Angola, then forms the 300 km border between the DR Congo and the Angolan provinces of Uíge and Malanje and finally flows into the Kasai at Bandundu . The Okavango rises east of Huambo (in Angola Cubango ), which leaves Angola in a south-easterly direction and feeds the Okavango basin in the desert-like interior of Botswana .

In the highlands, the rainy season lasts from November to April, followed by a cool dry season from May to October.

Eastern plain

In the interior of the country, the highlands, which are up to 2600 m high, merge into largely flat savannah regions that extend in the east to the Zambezi . This area covers most of Angola , but is home to few residents due to its inhospitable nature. It lies at an average of 1000 to 1200 m above sea level. In the northeast the mountains of the Lundaschwelle rise up to 1600 m above sea level. The open dry savannah that covers the eastern part of the country is only interrupted in a few places by agricultural land. On the upper reaches of the Kasai (in Angola Cassai ) maize is grown around Luena and Dilolo ( DR Congo ), near Canconga in the province of Moxico and around Saurimo (province of Lunda Sul ) peanuts .

The rivers of eastern Angola drain in all directions except to the west, where the highlands block the way to the ocean. Cuango , Cuilo and Cassai have their source in the provinces of Lunda Sul and Moxico and flow north into the Congo Basin . The Cassai forms the eastern border between Angola and the DR Congo for almost 400 kilometers. The rivers in the central regions of eastern Angola mostly drain south-east to the Zambezi , for example Luena , Lungwebungu and Cuando . The upper reaches of the Zambezi itself is around 330 km long on Angolan territory. The river leaves Angola again at the Chavuma Falls .

The area between the rivers Cuando and Cuito in the very south-east of the country is very sparsely populated and large parts of it have been placed under protection. The rivers of the southeast drain into the desert interior of Botswana , including Cubango and Cuito.

The savannah areas in eastern Angola are not easily connected to the more densely populated parts of the country in the highlands and on the coast. The road conditions are rather bad, which is supported by the change between dry and rainy seasons. The east of the country is also the region that has served the opposition União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA) as a refuge for decades and was therefore badly affected by the consequences of the war - especially in the sense that any development there was blocked .

bibliography

  • Manfred Kuder, Angola: A geographical, social and economic regional studies , Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1971