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    Europe looks small, but its "perimeter" (coastline) is huge. Africa on the other hand has a very linear shoreline
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    Europe looks small, but its “perimeter” (coastline) is huge. Africa on the other hand has a very linear shoreline


    Europe looks small, but its “perimeter” (coastline) is huge. Africa on the other hand has a very linear shoreline

    Posted by gimboarretino

    View 46 Comments

    46 Comments

    6. lNFORMATlVE on

      Is this really true or has Africa’s coastline simply not been mapped to such a fine degree (and has then just been linearly interpolated) in readily accessible data because it is typically forgotten/ignored in a worldwide economic sense?

    11. ctothel on

      ~~This is super interesting but isn’t it a bit confusing to base it on the Mercator projection?~~

      Edit: I could be wrong. I’ll edit again if OP clarifies

    13. DrainZ- on

      One great feature with this map is that countries with long perimeter relative to their size being bloated up makes it more visible how jagged their shoreline is. Especially Norway.

    14. EggoSkrr on

      This has had a massive effect on trade and economy in the history of humans.

      Longer coastline means more harbours and cover, protecting societies and easier to station and protect ships for trade and navy. Linear coastlines are difficult to anchor and breach. This knock on effect is one of the reasons Europe historically prospered (at least in the post-shipbuilding era) and Africa has struggled economically. Also explains why the mass European migration to North America was easier in terms of the actual travel and why creating colonial settlements was so easy.

      Idk if it’s this black and white but certainly played a part.

    19. Ok-Temperature1516 on

      Doesn’t the US have a massive coastline on the east coast? Why is this not represented here?

    31. Defiant_Size5991 on

      It’s wild how that fractal coastline effect makes Europe seem so much larger than it is on a map. The “peninsula of peninsulas” thing is a perfect way to describe it. It really makes you think about how much detail gets lost in a simple outline. That’s probably why cartographers have such a tough job.

    33. malev89 on

      Dude, what happened to New Zealand. She was so thin when they filmed TLOTR there… now. Does anybody know what happened to her? Bad break up?

    37. cnzmur on

      Is this the case, or is it partly that European countries are just surveyed to a much higher precision than African ones?

    39. King_Ethelstan on

      Controversial, but its one of the reasons why Africa is poor. Few and shallow coastlines prevent maritime trade

    42. SaintBobby_Barbarian on

      Africa is such an interesting continent geographically. Basically one large plateau, so many rivers that see water falls that impede traditional riverine navigation, rift valley mud volcanoes, the Sudd swamplands of the upper nile that impeded ancient travelers from getting deeper into Africa

    44. Zippytiewassabi on

      Is this just saltwater coastline or does this include freshwater coastline? For example in the US, are the Great Lakes doing some heavy lifting for the US projection?

    46. rab777hp on

      Nonsense. How “long” a coastline is is a function of how much money you spend on measuring it. So of course Europe will seem to have more.