Exploration of Africa

The geography of North Africa has been reasonably well known since classical antiquity in Greco-Roman geography. Northwest Africa (the Maghreb) was known as either Libya or Africa, while Egypt was considered part of Asia. At the beginning of the 19th century, European knowledge of geography of the interior of Sub-Saharan Africa was still rather limited. It was left for 19th-century European explorers (including those searching for the famed sources of the Nile) to flesh more detail such as the continent's geological makeup.

Exploration of Africa

The geography of North Africa has been reasonably well known since classical antiquity in Greco-Roman geography. Northwest Africa (the Maghreb) was known as either Libya or Africa, while Egypt was considered part of Asia. At the beginning of the 19th century, European knowledge of geography of the interior of Sub-Saharan Africa was still rather limited. It was left for 19th-century European explorers (including those searching for the famed sources of the Nile) to flesh more detail such as the continent's geological makeup.