• 51 features
  • Checked October 2026

Africa Physical Features Map Quiz

Tap the desert, mountain range, river or lake each question names.

Africa Physical Features Map Quiz

Name Date

Tap this on the map: Red Sea

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Write the name of each numbered feature.Answer key

  1. Sahara
  2. Nile River
  3. Atlantic Ocean
  4. Indian Ocean
  5. Mediterranean Sea
  6. Madagascar
  7. Congo River
  8. Lake Victoria
  9. Red Sea
  10. Kalahari Desert
  11. Atlas Mountains
  12. Niger River
  13. Sahel
  14. Great Rift Valley
  15. Congo Basin
  16. Horn of Africa
  17. Gulf of Guinea
  18. Zambezi River
  19. Lake Tanganyika
  20. Ethiopian Highlands
  21. Namib Desert
  22. Lake Chad
  23. Mozambique Channel
  24. Drakensberg
  25. Lake Malawi
  26. Orange River
  27. Libyan Desert
  28. Strait of Gibraltar
  29. Canary Islands
  30. Lake Nasser
  31. Ahaggar Mountains
  32. Tibesti Mountains
  33. Nubian Desert
  34. Senegal River
  35. Cape Verde
  36. Benue River
  37. Lake Volta
  38. Niger Delta
  39. Adamawa Plateau
  40. Ubangi River
  41. Kasai River
  42. Blue Nile
  43. Lake Turkana
  44. Lake Albert
  45. Gulf of Aden
  46. Sudd
  47. Seychelles
  48. Limpopo River
  49. Okavango River
  50. Lake Kariba
  51. Katanga Plateau

Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2. Licence: public domain.

Each feature is a button. Use the arrow keys to move between them and Enter to choose. Names are read out in Study, and once a feature is answered.

Next step Put the borders back: the countries of AfricaA blank map of Africa with the borders on

All 51 features on the diagram

Show the list

The big features 2

  1. Atlantic Ocean Second in size among the five oceans.
  2. Indian Ocean The third-largest ocean, bounded on the west by Africa.

North Africa and the Sahara 14

  1. Sahara The world's largest hot desert, spanning North Africa.
  2. Nile River A north-flowing river that empties into the Mediterranean Sea.
  3. Mediterranean Sea A sea between Africa, Europe and Asia, almost enclosed by land.
  4. Red Sea An Indian Ocean inlet between Africa and Arabia.
  5. Atlas Mountains A range through Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, north of the Sahara.
  6. Sahel The transition zone between the Sahara and the savannas to its south.
  7. Lake Chad A freshwater lake where Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon meet.
  8. Libyan Desert The northeastern Sahara, from eastern Libya to western Egypt.
  9. Strait of Gibraltar A narrow strait that separates Africa from Europe.
  10. Canary Islands An archipelago in the Atlantic, off Africa's northwest coast.
  11. Lake Nasser A large reservoir in southern Egypt, made by the Aswan High Dam.
  12. Ahaggar Mountains A highland of southern Algeria, in the mid-Sahara.
  13. Tibesti Mountains A range in the central Sahara, mostly in northern Chad.
  14. Nubian Desert The eastern Sahara between the Nile and the Red Sea.

West and Central Africa 12

  1. Congo River Africa's second-longest river, after the Nile.
  2. Niger River The main river of West Africa, ending in the Gulf of Guinea.
  3. Congo Basin The basin of the Congo River, in Central Africa.
  4. Gulf of Guinea The corner of the tropical Atlantic between Liberia and Gabon.
  5. Senegal River A West African river on the border of Senegal and Mauritania.
  6. Cape Verde An archipelago of ten volcanic islands, west of Africa.
  7. Benue River The Niger River's main tributary.
  8. Lake Volta A reservoir in Ghana, behind the Akosombo Dam.
  9. Niger Delta The delta of the Niger River, on the Gulf of Guinea.
  10. Adamawa Plateau A plateau stretching from southeastern Nigeria across north-central Cameroon.
  11. Ubangi River The Congo's largest tributary from the right bank.
  12. Kasai River A tributary on the Congo's left bank, rising in Angola.

East Africa and the Horn 12

  1. Lake Victoria Africa's largest lake by area, among the African Great Lakes.
  2. Great Rift Valley A series of long depressions running from the Red Sea to Mozambique.
  3. Horn of Africa A large peninsula at mainland Africa's eastern tip.
  4. Lake Tanganyika The world's longest freshwater lake, and the second deepest.
  5. Ethiopian Highlands A rugged mass of mountains, nicknamed the Roof of Africa.
  6. Lake Malawi The southernmost lake of the East African Rift, also called Nyasa.
  7. Blue Nile A river from Lake Tana in Ethiopia, a major Nile tributary.
  8. Lake Turkana A salt lake of the Kenyan Rift Valley, in northern Kenya.
  9. Lake Albert A lake shared by Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
  10. Gulf of Aden A deep gulf on the Indian Ocean, south of Yemen.
  11. Sudd A huge South Sudan swamp that the White Nile forms.
  12. Seychelles A group of 115 Indian Ocean islands.

Southern Africa 11

  1. Madagascar The world's fourth-largest island, off Africa's southeastern coast.
  2. Kalahari Desert A large semiarid sandy savanna, covering much of Botswana.
  3. Zambezi River Africa's longest river that flows east, ending in the Indian Ocean.
  4. Namib Desert A coastal desert on the Atlantic shores of Angola and Namibia.
  5. Mozambique Channel Part of the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and Mozambique.
  6. Drakensberg The Great Escarpment's eastern part, in southern Africa.
  7. Orange River South Africa's longest river, flowing west to the Atlantic.
  8. Limpopo River A river rising in South Africa and flowing east through Mozambique.
  9. Okavango River A river with no outlet to the sea, ending in the Kalahari.
  10. Lake Kariba A reservoir on the Zambezi, between Zambia and Zimbabwe.
  11. Katanga Plateau A plateau in the southeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

How this list was compiled: The 51 features, their names and their outlines come from Natural Earth 5.1.2, the map data credited under the drawing. Each name was compared with the English Wikipedia article for the feature, and every detail line was read in the opening of that article and checked 2026-10-01. Rivers are listed as rivers (Nile River) where Natural Earth prints the bare name, and the bare name is accepted as a typed answer. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_geography_regions_polys (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_geography_regions_polys.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_geography_marine_polys (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_geography_marine_polys.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_lakes (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_rivers_lake_centerlines (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_rivers_lake_centerlines.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Surrounding land from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_admin_0_countries_lakes (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_admin_0_countries_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection centred on 1°N 17°E. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. 2 places are too small to draw at this scale and shown as a dot. Licence: public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)

How it works

This Africa physical features map quiz asks 51 features on a map with no country borders, from the Atlas Mountains to the Drakensberg: deserts, highlands and basins as shaded areas, 12 rivers as lines, 9 lakes, and the seas around the continent.

Read the full guide

An Africa physical features quiz in six sets

The quiz opens on the big features, 26 of them in three short rounds: the Sahara, the Nile, the Congo Basin, Lake Victoria. Start from lists the other sets. Four take one region each and zoom the map in, so the North Africa and the Sahara set is a north Africa physical map quiz. Rivers and lakes asks 21: an African rivers map quiz with the nine lakes added.

Deserts that lie on the Sahara

The Libyan Desert, the Nubian Desert, the Ahaggar Mountains and the Tibesti Mountains all lie on the Sahara. A tap counts for the shape on top, so for the Sahara tap its western half. Eight small lakes, the Niger Delta and the Ubangi River are answered at a ring beside them.

  • The Sahel is the band just south of the Sahara, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.
  • Down the Great Rift Valley from north to south: Lake Turkana, Lake Albert, Lake Tanganyika, Lake Malawi.
  • The Benue flows into the Niger. The Ubangi and the Kasai both flow into the Congo.

Questions and answers

What are the main physical features of Africa?

The Sahara, the world's largest hot desert, and the Sahel below it. Then the Atlas Mountains, the Congo Basin, the Great Rift Valley with its lakes, the Ethiopian Highlands, the Kalahari and Namib deserts, and four great rivers: Nile, Congo, Niger, Zambezi.

Can I print a blank physical map of Africa?

Yes. Before you answer the first question, open More options. The blank print numbers every feature and leaves a line for each name: a blank map of Africa with rivers and lakes. The labeled print adds the answer key.

Which is the largest lake in Africa?

Lake Victoria, by area. It is an African Great Lake. Lake Tanganyika is the longest freshwater lake in the world and the second deepest.

Why is Madagascar in a physical features of Africa map quiz?

Madagascar lies off the southeastern coast of Africa, across the Mozambique Channel, and it is the fourth-largest island in the world. The quiz asks it with Southern Africa.

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