Let's start with some |Bfigures|N: The planet that we live on is the third one in our solar system, counted from the center. The average distance to sun is about 150 million kilometres; the outermost planet - Pluto - is 40 times that far away! Only the "low" distance to sun has enabled the rise of life on our planet: The average temperature on Earth is 22°C, on Pluto -230°C, and values of more than 400°C were found on Mercury and Venus.
The periphery of Earth is about 40000 km, that makes a |Bsurface|N of more than 510 million square kilometres of which are 70% covered with water. The largest ocean is the Pacific with a surface of 166m km²; it is larger than all land on Earth! The Atlantic has about half the size, the Indian Ocean is even smaller. The biggest mainland is Eurasia with an area of 55m km², followed by Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica and Australia.
With only one |Bmoon|N Earth ranks not too good: The ring-planet Saturn has got 17 satellites.
Earth is divided into several very different |Bclimatic zones|N: The tropical, the subtropical, the temperate and the polar zones.
The humid |Itropical zone|N is located on both sides of the equator, between the Tropic of the Cancer and the Tropic of the Capricorn (shown in the map as dotted lines). The difference between the length of a day in summer and the length in winter is below three hours there, hence the temperature is quite the same throughout the year. It is about 30°C near the equator on sea-level. The only difference between the seasons is intensified rainfall in summer. Tropical regions are Brazil, Central Africa and Indonesia.
The |Isubtropical zones|N with their desert belts are farther away from the equator, therefore the difference in days' length is up to seven hours; consequently we find stronger changes of temperature during the year. The average temperature on sealevel is about 20°C. Subtropical regions are California, Florida, the Mediterranean countries, China, South Africa and the Southern part of Australia.
The |Itemperate zones|N include Southern Canada, Central Europe, vast parts of Russia, the Southern part of South America and New Zealand. They are divided into warm and cold regions. The differences of temperature between these areas are high: The values range between 0° and 25°C in Central Europe, but between -20° and 30°C in Central Asia. The quantity of precipitation shows similar differences. The temperate zones are bordered by the polar circles (dotted lines).
Inside these circles are the |Ipolar zones|N where the difference of daylength is 24 hours, i.e. the sun does not shine at all in winter, but the whole day long in summer. Temperature is usually below zero, snowfall is rare.
As different as the climate are |Bflora and fauna|N in the different regions of our planet. Please see the continent descriptions for details.
Earth is inhabited by about 5.5 billion human beings. This |Bpopulation|N is distributed in a very irregular way: We find extremely dense population in Eastern China, Japan, Java (Indonesia), around the rivers Ganga (India, Bangla Desh) and Nile (Egypt) and in some parts of Europe. On the other hand large areas like Australia or Central Asia are nearly uninhabited. Mankind is divided into several races, it has produced hundreds of languages and believes in many different religions. See the continent descriptions for details.
Today's science consideres the Australopithecus of South and East Africa as our first man-like ancestors, and the first man-made tools and gadgets were found in these regions. But mandkind's |Bhistory|N does not start before the consolidation of civilizations in the Middle East (-> Asia, Egypt), China, India, Central and South America.
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Europa
B
Europe
The Assyrians called the land of sunrise "Aszu", the land of sunset "Erep". The Phoenicians took these words in their language as "Asia" and "Europe".
If you look at a world map Europe does not seem to be a continent but a big peninsula, an appendage to Asia. But because of the numerous cultural and historical differences the division into two continents does make sense. The |Bborder|N to Asia looks like this: Ural Mountains - Ural river - Caspian Sea - Northern Caucasus - Black Sea - Bosporus - Marmara Sea - Dardanelles. From there on the border to the neighbouring continents Asia and Africa suggests itself: It is formed by the Mediterranean Sea.
Striking is the in comparision ramified |Bstructure|N, with by-seas of the Atlantic Ocean, and with islands and peninsulas that make up one third of Europe's area. We can find all imaginable types of coastline: Alluvial land at some mouths of rivers, fjords and rocky coasts in Scandinavia and the unique "Wattenmeer" of the North Sea, covered by water at high tide, and a large area of wet sand at low tide. Then it is possible to walk to places that are islands when the tide is coming back!
The |Bextent|N of Europe is more than 4000 km from North to South, and more than 4300 km from West to East. In spite of its small |Barea|N of 10.4 m. km² - it is the second smallest continent - we find many different |Btypes of countryside|N in Europe. The South consists of a belt of high mountain ranges, like the Pyrenees, the Alps (with Europe's highest mountain, Mont Blanc, 4807m), the Carpatian Mountains and the peninsulas in the Mediterranean Sea. To the North follows a belt of intermediate mountains, then a large belt of lowlands that reach from Northern France to the Ural Mountains; hence East Europe is a lowland with big rivers. Scandinavia is formed by a mountain range that continues on the British Isles. Iceland has got a very special landscape, with many volcanos and ice-covered mountains. There are many navigable rivers in Europe that are of great importance for traffic: The Rhine is the world's most traveled river.
|BClimate|N: Europe is located between 35° and 71° Northern latitude, hence nearly completely in the temperate zone; only some Mediterranean countries belong to the subtropical zone, with hot, dry summers and wet winters. The climate of West and Central Europe is positively influenced by the warm Gulf stream and maritime, i.e. mild and humid. In East Europe we find continental climate: The farther away from the coast, the bigger the contrast between hot, dry summers and hard winters with heavy snowfall. The extreme North of the continent is located in the polar zone.
|BFlora and Fauna|N are closely related to the climatic zones: The extreme North is covered by tundra with some polar animals (e.g. reindeer). This is followed by a wide belt of wood and agricultural land. Many animals have become seldom in these regions (e.g. bear, wolf, fox, badger and deer). The Mediterranean countries have got evergreen woods and much pasture-land, some subtropical animals live there (e.g. jackal). The Southern part of East Europe was a steppe, nowadays it is farming land.
Europe is densely populated, with 700 million |Binhabitants|N. The population is distributed in a very irregular way: North and East Europe are sparsely populated, while more than 500 people live on a square kilometre in the German Ruhr area, in Middle England and in the Italian Lombardia. The biggest cities are Moscow (9 million inhabitants), Paris (9m, with suburbs), London (7m) and the Turkish Istanbul (6.5m) that is located on both sides of the Bosporus, i.e. one half in Europe, one half in Asia.
The |Bpopulation|N of Europe consists nearly completely of Caucasians, about 70 indo-european languages are spoken, the most common ones are Russian and German. Nearly all Europeans that believe in a religion are Christians: We find Protestants in the North, Orthodoxes in the East and Roman Catholics in the South.
The development of Europe's |Beconomy|N was in former times favoured by mineral resources like iron and coal. Nowadays West Europe has to import many mineral and agricultural goods, in spite of its intensive farming. The most important products of European agriculture are corn, potatoes, sunflowers, sugar and meat. The Mediterranean coutries produce 50% of the world's wine and more than 70% of all o
