Carl Porterfida age 12, of Dallas, Texas, for his question:

How long and how wide is Africa?

The greatest length of the continent of Africa is about 5,000 miles. This line reaches from a point on the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea to Cape Horn, way below the equator. Africa's waistline reaches from the tip of the Gulf of lIden in the east to Dakar on the western shoreline which bulges out into the Atlantic. This line, the width of Africa, is about 4, 600 miles.

As a continent, Africa is second in area only to the continent of Asia. Its total area is estimated to be 11,600,000 square miles. It has room to swallow Canada, Mexico, the United States including Alaska and still have room for dessert.