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Jericho
Town (pop., 1995 est.: 25,000), W. Bank of the Jordan River. Inhabited since c.9000 BC, it is famous in biblical history as the first town attacked by the Israelites under Joshua after they crossed the Jordan River c.1400 BC. It was several times abandoned or destroyed and rebuilt in the same area. Captured by the British in 1918, it became part of the British mandate of Palestine. Incorporated into Jordan in 1949, it became the site of two huge camps of Arab refugees from Israel. In the Six-Day War (1967) the town was occupied by Israel, and much of the refugee population was dispersed. In 1994 it was turned over to Palestinian rule under the Israeli-Palestinian self-rule agreement.
Africa
Second-largest continent on earth. It is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean; it is divided almost equally by the equator. Area: 11,724,300 sq mi (30,365,700 sq km). Population (1994 est.): 683,000,000. Africa is composed largely of a rigid platform of ancient rocks that underlies vast plateau regions in the interior. Its average elevation is about 2,200 ft (670 m), but elevations range from 19,340 ft (5,895 m) at Mt. Kilimanjaro to 515 ft (157 m) below sea level at Lake Assal. The Sahara, the world's largest contiguous desert, occupies more than one-fourth of the total land area. The continent's hydrology is dominated by the Nile River in the north and the Congo in central Africa. Only about 6% of the continent is arable, while nearly one-fourth is forested or wooded. The peoples of Africa probably speak more languages than those of any other continent. Arabic is predominant from Egypt to Mauritania and in the Sudan. The sub-Sahara is inhabited by peoples speaking a number of languages known collectively as Bantu, while a smaller number use languages from the Khoisan language family of SW Africa. Peoples of European descent are found in the south; Dutch (Boer) migrations began in the 17th cent., and the English first settled in what is now Zambia and Zimbabwe in the 19th cent. Africa as a whole is a developing region. Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy in most countries. Diamond and gold mining are especially important in the south, while other areas produce petroleum and natural gas. Most African governments are controlled by a single clique. Many legal systems are based on laws introduced by European powers during the colonial era, though N. African countries derive many laws from Islam. African leaders have sought to develop a pan-African approach to the continent's political and military affairs through the Organization of African Unity. Human beings are widely thought to have originated in Africa. The oldest known hominids, members of the genus Australopithecus, date from about 8 million years ago. Homo habilis and Homo erectus inhabited Africa before and during the Pleistocene epoch (1.6 million-10,000 years ago), and forms of Homo ...
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