7 Continents of the World and

the 5 Oceans List

Our planet Earth, where all of us live is one of the most diverse
planets known to human being. Though there have been so
much advances in the astronomy over the years, we have never
been able to find a planet as diverse as earth which is home to
millions of living organisms like our mother earth is. In the
millions and zillions of stars and planets which comprise our
universe, our earth is of the size less than the size of the point of
a needle. But for us, the small living beings on this planet, this is
a very huge home.
Our earth is made up of large land masses known as continents
and water bodies known as oceans. The earth has not been like
this always as how we see it now. Millions of years before there
were only one large land mass and a large ocean surrounding it.

Later on the land mass started to split and drift apart surrounded
by ocean on all sides. This process is still going on. Now we
have 7 continents and 5 oceans which are home to all of us and
millions of other living organisms. Let us learn about each of
these seven continents and five oceans that make up our planet
earth.

A continent is one of several very large landmasses onEarth.

They are generally identified by convention rather than any
strict criteria, with up to seven regions commonly regarded as
continents.

These

are

smallest): Asia, Africa, North

(from

largest

in

size

to

America, South

America,Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.[1] In geology, areas

ofcontinental crust include regions covered with water.
Definitions and application
By convention, "continents are understood to be large,
continuous, discrete masses of land, ideally separated by
expanses of water."[2] Many of the seven most commonly
recognized continents identified by convention are not discrete
landmasses separated completely by water. The criterion "large"
leads to arbitrary classification: Greenland, with a surface area
of 2,166,086 square kilometres (836,330 sq mi) is considered the
world's largest island, while Australia, at 7,617,930 square
kilometres (2,941,300 sq mi) is deemed the smallest continent.

The Earth's major landmasses all have coasts on a single,

continuousworld ocean, which is divided into a number of
principal oceaniccomponents by the continents and various
geographic criteria.[3][4] The definitions of continents are
sometimes extended beyond the major landmasses, in a way that
every bit of land on earth is included in a continent.[5]

Extent of continents[edit]
The narrowest meaning of continent is that of a
continuous[6] area of land or mainland, with the coastline and
any land boundaries forming the edge of the continent. In this
sense the term continental Europe (sometimes "the Continent")
is used to refer to mainland Europe, excluding islands such
as Great Britain, Ireland, Malta and Iceland, and the
termcontinent of Australia may refer to the mainland of
Australia, excluding Tasmania and New Guinea. Similarly,
the continental United States refers to the 48 contiguous states in
central North America and may include Alaska in the northwest

of the continent (the two being separated by Canada), while

excluding Hawaii in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
From the perspective of geology or physical
geography, continent may be extended beyond the confines of
continuous dry land to include the shallow, submerged adjacent
area (the continental shelf)[7] and the islands on the shelf
(continental islands), as they are structurally part of the
continent.[8]
From this perspective the edge of the continental shelf is the true
edge of the continent, as shorelines vary with changes in sea
level.[9] In this sense the islands of Great Britain and Ireland are
part of Europe, while Australia and the island of New Guinea
together form a continent.
As a cultural construct, the concept of a continent may go
beyond the continental shelf to include oceanic islands and
continental fragments. In this way, Iceland is considered part of
Europe and Madagascar part of Africa. Extrapolating the
concept to its extreme, some geographers group

the Australasian continental plate with other islands in the

Pacific into one continent called Oceania. This divides the entire
land surface of the Earth into continents or quasi-continents.[10]

Map of island countries: these states are often grouped

geographically with a neighboring continental landmass
Separation of continents[edit]
See also: Borders of the continents and Transcontinental
country
The ideal criterion that each continent be a discrete landmass is
commonly relaxed due to historical conventions. Of the seven
most commonly recognized continents, only Antarctica and
Australia are completely separated from other continents.
Several continents are defined not as absolutely distinct bodies
but as "more or less discrete masses of land".[11] Asia and Africa
are joined by the Isthmus of Suez, and North and South America
by the Isthmus of Panama. In both cases, there is no complete

separation of these landmasses by water (disregarding

the Suez and Panama Canals, which are both narrow and
shallow, as well as being man-made). Both theseisthmuses are
very narrow compared to the bulk of the landmasses they unite.
North America and South America are treated as separate
continents in the seven-continent model. However, they may
also be viewed as a single continent known as America or the
Americas. This viewpoint was common in the United States
until World War II, and remains prevalent in some Asian sixcontinent models.[12] This remains the more common vision in
Latin American countries, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and
Greece, where they are taught as a single continent.
The criterion of a discrete landmass is completely disregarded if
the continuous landmass of Eurasia is classified as two separate
continents: Europe and Asia. Physiographically, Europe and
South Asia are peninsulas of the Eurasian landmass. However,
Europe is widely considered a continent with its comparatively
large land area of 10,180,000 square kilometres

(3,930,000 sq mi), while South Asia, with less than half that
area, is considered a subcontinent. The alternative viewin
geology and geographythat Eurasia is a single continent
results in a six-continent view of the world. Some view
separation of Eurasia into Europe and Asia as a residue
of Eurocentrism: "In physical, cultural and historical
diversity, Chinaand India are comparable to the entire European
landmass, not to a single European country. [...]"[13] However,
for historical and cultural reasons, the view of Europe as a
separate continent continues in several categorizations.
If continents are defined strictly as discrete landmasses,
embracing all the contiguous land of a body, then Asia, Europe
and Africa form a single continent which may be referred to
as Afro-Eurasia. This produces a four-continent model
consisting of Afro-Eurasia, America, Antarctica and Australia.
When sea levels were lower during the Pleistocene ice ages,
greater areas of continental shelf were exposed as dry land,
forming land bridges. At those times AustraliaNew Guinea was

a single, continuous continent. Likewise the Americas and AfroEurasia were joined by the Bering land bridge. Other islands
such as Great Britain were joined to the mainlands of their
continents. At that time there were just three discrete continents:
Afro-Eurasia-America, Antarctica, and Australia-New Guinea.
History of the concept[edit]

The Ancient Greek geographer Strabo holding a globe

showing Europa and Asia
Early concepts of the Old World continents[edit]
The first distinction between continents was made by ancient
Greek mariners who gave the names Europe and Asia to the
lands on either side of the waterways of the Aegean Sea,
the Dardanelles strait, the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus strait
and the Black Sea.[44] The names were first applied just to lands

near the coast and only later extended to include the hinterlands.
[45]

But the division was only carried through to the end of

navigable waterways and "... beyond that point the Hellenic

geographers never succeeded in laying their finger on any inland
feature in the physical landscape that could offer any convincing
line for partitioning an indivisible Eurasia ..."[44]
Ancient Greek thinkers subsequently debated whether Africa
(then called Libya) should be considered part of Asia or a third
part of the world. Division into three parts eventually came to
predominate.[46] From the Greek viewpoint, the Aegean Sea was
the center of the world; Asia lay to the east, Europe to the north
and west, and Africa to the south.[47]The boundaries between the
continents were not fixed. Early on, the EuropeAsia boundary
was taken to run from the Black Sea along the Rioni
River (known then as the Phasis) in Georgia. Later it was
viewed as running from the Black Sea through Kerch Strait,
the Sea of Azov and along the Don River (known then as
theTanais) in Russia.[48] The boundary between Asia and Africa
was generally taken to be the Nile River. Herodotus[49] in the 5th

century BC, however, objected to the unity of Egypt being split

into Asia and Africa ("Libya") and took the boundary to lie
along the western border of Egypt, regarding Egypt as part of
Asia. He also questioned the division into three of what is really
a single landmass,[50] a debate that continues nearly two and a
half millennia later.
Eratosthenes, in the 3rd century BC, noted that some
geographers divided the continents by rivers (the Nile and the
Don), thus considering them "islands". Others divided the
continents by isthmuses, calling the continents "peninsulas".
These latter geographers set the border between Europe and Asia
at the isthmus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, and
the border between Asia and Africa at the isthmus between
the Red Sea and the mouth of Lake Bardawil on
theMediterranean Sea.[51]

Medieval T and O map showing the three continents as domains

of the sons of NoahAsia to Sem (Shem), Europe to Iafeth
(Japheth), and Africa to Cham (Ham).
Through the Roman period and the Middle Ages, a few writers
took the Isthmus of Suez as the boundary between Asia and
Africa, but most writers continued to consider it the Nile or the
western border of Egypt (Gibbon)[citation needed]. In the Middle Ages,
the world was usually portrayed on T and O maps, with the T
representing the waters dividing the three continents. By the
middle of the 18th century, "the fashion of dividing Asia and
Africa at the Nile, or at the Great Catabathmus [the boundary
between Egypt and Libya] farther west, had even then scarcely
passed away".[52]

European arrival in the Americas[

Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to
the West Indies in 1492, sparking a period of European
exploration of the Americas. But despite four voyages to the
Americas, Columbus never believed he had reached a new
continenthe always thought it was part of Asia.
In 1501, Amerigo Vespucci and Gonalo Coelho attempted to
sail around what they considered the southern end of the Asian
mainland into the Indian Ocean, passing through Fernando de
Noronha. After reaching the coast of Brazil, they sailed a long
way further south along the coast ofSouth America, confirming
that this was a land of continental proportions and that it also
extended much further south than Asia was known to.[53] On
return to Europe, an account of the voyage, called Mundus
Novus ("New World"), was published under Vespuccis name in
1502 or 1503,[54] although it seems that it had additions or
alterations by another writer.[55]Regardless of who penned the
words, Mundus Novus credited Vespucci with saying, "I have
discovered a continent in those southern regions that is inhabited

by more numerous people and animals than our Europe, or Asia

or Africa",[56] the first known explicit identification of part of the
Americas as a continent like the other three.
Within a few years the name "New World" began appearing as a
name for South America on world maps, such as the Oliveriana
(Pesaro) map of around 15041505. Maps of this time though,
still showed North America connected to Asia and showed South
America as a separate land.[55]

Universalis Cosmographia, Waldseemller's 1507 world map

the first to show the Americas separate from Asia
In 1507 Martin Waldseemller published a world
map,Universalis Cosmographia, which was the first to show
North and South America as separate from Asia and surrounded
by water. A small inset map above the main map explicitly

showed for the first time the Americas being east of Asia and
separated from Asia by an ocean, as opposed to just placing the
Americas on the left end of the map and Asia on the right end. In
the accompanying bookCosmographiae Introductio,
Waldseemller noted that the earth is divided into four parts,
Europe, Asia, Africa and the fourth part, which he named
"America" after Amerigo Vespucci's first name.[57] On the map,
the word "America" was placed on part of South America.
The word continent[edit]
From the 16th century the English noun continent was derived
from the term continent land, meaning continuous or connected
land[58] and translated from the Latin terra continens.[59] The
noun was used to mean "a connected or continuous tract of land"
or mainland.[58] It was not applied only to very large areas of
landin the 17th century, references were made to
the continents (or mainlands) of Isle of
Man, Ireland and Wales and in 1745 to Sumatra.[58] The
wordcontinent was used in translating Greek and Latin writings
about the three "parts" of the world, although in the original

languages no word of exactly the same meaning

as continent was used.[60]
While continent was used on the one hand for relatively small
areas of continuous land, on the other hand geographers again
raised Herodotuss query about why a single large landmass
should be divided into separate continents. In the mid 17th
century Peter Heylin wrote in his Cosmographie that "A
Continent is a great quantity of Land, not separated by any Sea
from the rest of the World, as the whole Continent of Europe,
Asia, Africa." In 1727 Ephraim Chambers wrote in
hisCyclopdia, "The world is ordinarily divided into two grand
continents: the old and the new." And in his 1752 atlas, Emanuel
Bowen defined a continent as "a large space of dry land
comprehending many countries all joined together, without any
separation by water. Thus Europe, Asia, and Africa is one great
continent, as America is another."[61] However, the old idea of
Europe, Asia and Africa as "parts" of the world ultimately
persisted with these being regarded as separate continents.

Hollandia Nova, 1659 map prepared byJoan Blaeu based on

voyages by Abel Tasman and Willem Jansz, this image shows a
French edition of 1663
Beyond four continents[
From the late 18th century some geographers started to regard
North America and South America as two parts of the world,
making five parts in total. Overall though the fourfold division
prevailed well into the 19th century.[62]
Europeans discovered Australia in 1606 but for some time it was
taken as part of Asia. By the late 18th century some geographers
considered it a continent in its own right, making it the sixth (or
fifth for those still taking America as a single continent).[62] In
1813 Samuel Butler wrote of Australia as "New Holland, an
immense island, which some geographers dignify with the

appellation of another continent" and the Oxford English

Dictionary was just as equivocal some decades later.[63]
Antarctica was sighted in 1820 and described as a continent
by Charles Wilkeson the United States Exploring Expedition in
1838, the last continent identified, although a great "Antarctic"
(antipodean) landmass had been anticipated for millennia. An
1849 atlas labelled Antarctica as a continent but few atlases did
so until after World War II.[64]
From the mid-19th century, atlases published in the United
States more commonly treated North and South America as
separate continents, while atlases published in Europe usually
considered them one continent. However, it was still not
uncommon for American atlases to treat them as one continent
up until World War II.[65]
From the 1950s, most U.S. geographers divided the Americas
into two continents.[65] With the addition of Antarctica, this made
the seven-continent model. However, this division of the
Americas never appealed to Latin Americans, who saw their

region spanning an Amrica as a single landmass, and there the

conception of six continents remains, as it does in scattered
other countries.[citation needed]
Some geographers regard Europe and Asia together as a single
continent, dubbed Eurasia.[66] In this model, the world is divided
into six continents, with North America and South America
considered separate continents.
Geology[]
Geologists use the term continent in a different manner from
geographers, where a continent is defined by continental crust: a
platform of metamorphic and igneous rock, largely
of granitic composition. Some geologists restrict the term
'continent' to portions of the crust built around
stable Precambrian "shield", typically 1.5 to 3.8 billion years
old, called acraton. The craton itself is an accretionary complex
of ancient mobile belts (mountain belts) from earlier cycles
ofsubduction, continental collision and break-up from plate
tectonic activity. An outward-thickening veneer of younger,

minimally deformed sedimentary rock covers much of the

craton. The margins of geologic continents are characterized by
currently active or relatively recently active mobile belts and
deep troughs of accumulated marine or deltaic sediments.
Beyond the margin, there is either a continental shelf and drop
off to the basaltic ocean basin or the margin of another
continent, depending on the current plate-tectonic setting of the
continent. A continental boundary does not have to be a body of
water. Over geologic time, continents are periodically
submerged under large epicontinental seas, and continental
collisions result in a continent becoming attached to another
continent. The current geologic era is relatively anomalous in
that so much of the continental areas are "high and dry"; that is,
many parts of the continents that were once below sea level are
now elevated well above it due to changes in sea levels and the
subsequent uplifting of those continental areas from tectonic
activity.[67]

The tectonic plates underlying the continents and oceans

Some argue that continents are accretionary crustal "rafts" that,
unlike the denser basaltic crust of the ocean basins, are not
subjected to destruction through the plate tectonic process of
subduction. This accounts for the great age of the rocks
comprising the continental cratons. By this definition, Eastern
Europe, India and some other regions could be regarded as
continental masses distinct from the rest of Eurasia because they
have separate ancient shield areas (i.e. East European
craton and Indian craton). Younger mobile belts (such as theUral
Mountains and Himalayas) mark the boundaries between these
regions and the rest of Eurasia.

There are many microcontinents, or continental fragments, that

are built of continental crust but do not contain a craton. Some
of these are fragments of Gondwana or other ancient cratonic
continents: Zealandia, which includes New Zealand and New
Caledonia; Madagascar; the northern Mascarene Plateau, which
includes the Seychelles. Other islands, such as several in
the Caribbean Sea, are composed largely of granitic rock as
well, but all continents contain both granitic and basaltic crust,
and there is no clear boundary as to which islands would be
considered microcontinents under such a definition.
The Kerguelen Plateau, for example, is largely volcanic, but is
associated with the breakup of Gondwanaland and is considered
a microcontinent,[68][69] whereas volcanic Iceland andHawaii are
not. The British Isles, Sri Lanka, Borneo, and Newfoundland are
margins of the Laurasian continentonly separated by inland
seas flooding its margins.
Plate tectonics offers yet another way of defining continents.
Today, Europe and most of Asia constitute the unifiedEurasian
Plate, which is approximately coincident with the geographic

Eurasian continent excluding India, Arabia, and far eastern

Russia. India contains a central shield, and the geologically
recent Himalaya mobile belt forms its northern margin. North
America and South America are separate continents, the
connecting isthmus being largely the result of volcanismfrom
relatively recent subduction tectonics. North American
continental rocks extend to Greenland (a portion of theCanadian
Shield), and in terms of plate boundaries, the North American
plate includes the easternmost portion of the Asian land mass.
Geologists do not use these facts to suggest that eastern Asia is
part of the North American continent, even though the plate
boundary extends there; the word continent is usually used in its
geographic sense and additional definitions ("continental rocks,"
"plate boundaries") are used as appropriate.
The movement of plates has caused the formation and break-up
of continents over time, including occasional formation of a
supercontinent that contains most or all of the continents. The
supercontinent Columbia or Nuna formed during a period of
2.01.8 billion years and broke up about 1.51.3 billion years

ago.[70][71] The supercontinent Rodinia is thought to have formed

about 1 billion years ago and to have embodied most or all of
Earth's continents, and broken up into eight continents around
600 million years ago. The eight continents later re-assembled
into another supercontinent calledPangaea; Pangaea broke up
into Laurasia (which became North America and Eurasia) and
Gondwana (which became the remaining continents).

The 7 Continents of The

World
Continents are the large land masses that we see on our earth.
These hard land masses where people and other living
organisms walk or crawl and make home are large in size, and
are made up of many countries. There are also many small land
masses which we call as islands, but continents are very large in
size compared to these islands. There are 7 continents on earth.
Many people combine the two continents Asia and Europe into a
single continent and call it Eurasia. Many others combine the
two continents North America and South America into one and
call it the American continent. But in general there are seven
large land masses on earth, namely Africa, Antarctica, Asia,
Australia, Europe, North America and South America. You must
be wondering to know what are the 7 Continents of the World.

You can get all the 7 continents of the world maps as well.
Details are as follows!

For that we have created a table which would get you all the
required details on the go. Kindly follow the table .

Africa

Africa is the second largest continent in the world. It is also the

second largest continent in the world in terms of population.
Africa is commonly referred to as the black continent by many.
This large land mass comprises of 54 countries and is home to
one billion people. About 15 percent of the world population
lives in this continent, which constitutes about 20 percent of the

total land area. Africa lies in the centre of the earth with the
equator passing through its centre. It is the only continent that
stretches from the northern temperate to the southern temperate
zones. The climate of Africa is largely tropical in nature. The
northern and southern parts of Africa have temperate climatic
conditions. Africa is also considered to be the birth place of
mankind. The oldest fossils of Homo sapiens found till now
have been from the eastern parts of this continent. This large and
diverse continent is home to lot of endangered species.
Africa is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea in the north, the
Indian Ocean to the south east, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea
to the northeast all along the Sinai Peninsula, and the Atlantic
Ocean on the west. Madagascar and a large number of
archipelagos are part of the continent. The population of Africa
is the youngest in the whole world. About 50% of the residents
in the continent are younger than 19 years of age.

Antarctica

Antarctica is the southernmost continent of all. The geographic

south pole of the earth is contained in this continent. It is made
of large permanent glaciers that surround the South Pole. This is
one of the most uninhabitable places on earth. With a very small
population of less than 5000 residents, Antarctica is the least

populated continent on earth. It is also home to very few plant

and animal species. Antarctica is also the coldest landmass on
earth and much of this continent is made of permanent glaciers.
Around 98% of the continent is covered by ice of about 1.9
kilometres thick.
Antarctica is the fifth largest among the seven continents. It is
actually double the size of the whole of Australia. It is known to
be the driest, coldest, and also the windiest continent. It has the
highest elevation among all the continents, and is considered to
be a complete desert. The temperature here is known to have
reached -89 degrees as well. Only cold adapted organisms have
the capacity to survive in this continent. Due to the hostile
environment and the lack of resources, this continent was largely
neglected and isolated.

Asia

Asia is the largest continent on earth covering

about 9 percent of the earths surface. It is also the
most populated continent on earth, home to an
estimated population of around 4.3 billion people.
This large population makes it an important part of
the world economy.

Asia is located mostly in the northern and eastern hemispheres

of the earth. It covers around 30% of the total land area, and is
known to be home to the earliest human populations. Around
60% of the planets human population were in this continent.
This continent is known for the large size, dense settlements,
and also the vast area of barely populated regions.
The boundaries of Asia are not very clearly defined. There is
actually no geographical separation as such between Asia and
Europe. The two continents form a large landmass which is
popularly called Eurasia. On the east of Asia you have the
Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean to the south and Arctic Ocean to
the north. The continent is known for its vast diversity in terms
of culture, environments, ethnic groups, economics, historical
background, and also the government systems.
Australia

The continent of Australia is a single country continent. It is the

sixth largest country by total area, and is also the smallest of all
the seven continents. Because of its size, and isolated location, it
is also called as island continent. Covering an area of 7617930
square kilometres, Australia lies in the Indo- Australian Plate.
This continent is surrounded by Indian Ocean and Pacific
Ocean. Australia is one of the least populated continents and is

rich in biodiversity. The Great Barrier Reef, which is the largest

coral reef in the world, is in Australia. It extends over 2000
kilometres in the north east cost of Australia. Australia is also
home to worlds largest monolith, Mount Augustus.
Officially known as the Commonwealth of Australia, the
country is an Oceanian country. It comprises the whole of
Australia, the island of Tasmania, and also a large number of
other smaller islands. The countries neighbouring Australia are
East Timor, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea to the north,
Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands on the north-east, and New
Zealand on the south-east.
Australia was mainly inhabited by the indigenous Australians for
around 40,000 years before the British first came to settle here.
They had over 250 language groups then. Today, Australia is one
of the wealthiest countries in the world, and a well developed
one too. It is the 12th largest economy in the world, and has the

fifth-highest per capita income in the world. It is ranked among

the highest in terms of provisions like quality of life, education,
health, economic freedom, and also the protection of political
rights and liberties.
Europe

Europe is the second smallest continent in the world. It

comprises the westernmost peninsula of the giant Eurasian

landmass. Covering almost 2 percent of the earths surface

Europe takes 6.8 percent of the worlds total land area. Europe is
home to almost 50 countries and is the third most populated
continent in the world after Asia and Africa. About 11 percent of
the worlds population lives in Australia. Russia is the largest
country in Europe and Vatican City is the smallest. Russia has
got territory in both the continents of Europe and Asia, and it
takes up around 40% of the land area of Europe.
Europe is divided from Asia by the watershed divides of the
Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea,
black sea and the waterways connecting black sea and Aegean
Sea. Europe is bordered by Arctic Ocean in the north side,
Atlantic Ocean on the west side, Mediterranean Sea to the south
and black sea and connected water ways on the south east.
Europe, especially ancient Greece is known to be the birth place
of the western culture. From the early 15 th century, Europe has

been playing a predominant role in the global affairs. It is also

where the industrial revolution started. The countries of Europe
had been controlled by the Americas, some parts of Africa,
Oceania, and a large majority of the countries in Asia all through
the times between the 16th and the 20th centuries. Western Europe
had been subject to a lot of radical cultural, economic, and social
changes due to the Industrial Revolution that began in Great
Britain. By the year 1900, Europe contributed to about 25% of
the total world population.
The World Wars were both concentrated around Europe, and that
led to a decline in the dominance of the continent in world
affairs by the time the world came on to the 20 th century. Politics
and economics had been affecting the countries largely leading
to several changes all throughout history. Nowadays, the
European Union has started having an influence over the
member countries.

North America

North America is a continent which lies wholly in the northern

hemisphere. It is bordered by Arctic Ocean in the north, Atlantic
Ocean in the east, Pacific Ocean in the south and west, and
South America and Caribbean Sea in the south east. North
America lies almost wholly in the western hemisphere. North
America covers almost 4.8 percent of the earths surface and
comprises around 16.5 percent of the whole land area on earth.

North America is home to nearly 565 million people. About 7.5

percent of the worlds population lives here. It is the third largest
continent in the world by area and fourth largest continent by
population. Most of the land and area of the continent is
dominated by Canada, United States of America, Greenland and
Mexico. There are also many smaller states in the Central
America and Caribbean regions.

South America

South America is a continent located in the western hemisphere

with most of its land area lying in the southern hemisphere and a
relatively small portion in the northern hemisphere. It has
Pacific Ocean to its western side, Atlantic Ocean in the north
and eastern side, and North America and Caribbean Sea in the
North West side. With an area covering 17,840,000 square

kilometres and a population of more than 3 billion, South

America is the fourth largest continent in terms of size and fifth
in terms of population. South America is home to twelve
sovereign states and two non sovereign states. It is generally
considered to be a subcontinent of the Americas.
South America is a continent which is diverse in terms of
geography and biodiversity. The worlds highest uninterrupted
waterfall, angel falls is situated in Venezuela in South America.
The Amazon River, which is the largest river in the world in
terms of volume, is also in this continent. The Atacama Desert,
which is the driest non polar place on earth, and the Amazon
forest which is the largest rainforest on earth, is situated in this
continent. It is also home to many interesting and unique species
of animals such as anaconda, piranha, jaguar etc. The Amazon
rainforests contains a major proportion of the earths species.

Brazil is the largest country in South America occupying more

than half of the continents land area and population.
Most of the population in this country is concentrated near the
eastern or western coasts. The far south regions and the interior
regions are just sparsely populated. The western part is
dominated by the mighty Andes Mountains. The eastern part ahs
got both highland regions and also lowlands. The major rivers
flowing through the continent like Parana, Amazon, and Orinoco
flow in this part.
Through regular interactions of the indigenous people with the
immigrants and conquerors from Europe, and the slaves from
Africa, the continents cultural and ethnic outlook came to be
formed. After being colonised for long periods in history,
Spanish and Portuguese came on to become the most spoken
languages here. Western traditions are followed in several parts.