Boundaries Between Continents - Africa and Asia

Africa and Asia

The natural geographical boundaries of Africa are the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden. The usual line taken to divide Africa from Asia today is at the Isthmus of Suez, the narrowest gap between the Mediterranean and Gulf of Suez, a route today followed by the Suez Canal. This makes the Sinai Peninsula geographically Asian, and Egypt a transcontinental country.

Less than 2% of Egyptian population live in the Sinai, and hence Egypt even though technically transcontinental is usually considered an African country. But when discussing the geopolitical region of the Middle East and North Africa, Egypt is usually grouped with the Asian countries as part of the Middle East, while Egypt's western neighbor Libya is grouped with the remaining North African countries as the Maghreb. Historically, in Greco-Roman geography, Egypt was also considered part of Asia, and Africa (Libya) was taken to begin in Marmarica, at the Catabathmus Magnus.

The Seychelles, Mauritius, and Comoros are island nations in the Indian Ocean associated with Africa. The island of Socotra may be considered African as it lies on this continent's shelf, but is part of Yemen, an Asian country.