Megan Moran

Country shapes: Africa quiz

Africa has 54 countries, and some of their outlines are far more distinctive than you might expect. Name these 20 from their silhouettes alone, each drawn to its true shape, with a fact after every answer.

A free quiz from Megan Moran, author of The Mighty Geography Quiz Book.

Paper-cut map of a continent made from countries in plum, gold and pink
Pick an answer to start20 to go
  1. Silhouette of a country shaped like a number 7, with a long coastline wrapping around a sharp point in the north-east
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 1 of 20Country shapes: AfricaEasy

    Which country has this shape?

  2. Silhouette of a very long, thin country that winds inland from a short coastline in the west
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 2 of 20Country shapes: AfricaEasy

    Which country has this shape?

  3. Silhouette of a long, thin landlocked country running north to south and narrowing at its southern end
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 3 of 20Country shapes: AfricaMedium

    Which country has this shape?

  4. Silhouette of a large, roughly square country with a short, curved coastline along its southern edge
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 4 of 20Country shapes: AfricaEasy

    Which country has this shape?

  5. Silhouette of a coastal country with a long, thin strip of land stretching out to the east from its north-east corner
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 5 of 20Country shapes: AfricaMedium

    Which country has this shape?

  6. Silhouette of a large, rounded landlocked country with a wedge-shaped point extending to the east
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 6 of 20Country shapes: AfricaEasy

    Which country has this shape?

  7. Silhouette of a huge country with a very narrow strip of land reaching west to a short coastline
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 7 of 20Country shapes: AfricaMedium

    Which country has this shape?

  8. Silhouette of a large country with a northern coastline that dips inwards in the middle, and long, straight borders to the east and south
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 8 of 20Country shapes: AfricaEasy

    Which country has this shape?

  9. Silhouette of a large, blocky coastal country with a small separate piece of land further up the coast to the north
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 9 of 20Country shapes: AfricaMedium

    Which country has this shape?

  10. Silhouette of a landlocked country shaped a little like a butterfly, with a deep notch cutting into it from the north
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 10 of 20Country shapes: AfricaHard

    Which country has this shape?

  11. Silhouette of a long coastal country running north to south, with a wide northern part and a narrow arm reaching inland to the north-west
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 11 of 20Country shapes: AfricaEasy

    Which country has this shape?

  12. Silhouette of a landlocked country with a large, triangular northern half joined by a narrow waist to a lobe in the south-west
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 12 of 20Country shapes: AfricaMedium

    Which country has this shape?

  13. Silhouette of a very narrow country running north to south, with a tiny coastline at its southern end
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 13 of 20Country shapes: AfricaHard

    Which country has this shape?

  14. Silhouette of a roughly triangular country with a short coastline in the south-west and a long, thin arm reaching north to a point
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 14 of 20Country shapes: AfricaMedium

    Which country has this shape?

  15. Silhouette of a narrow, upright country with an indented coastline along its north and east and a few small islands offshore
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 15 of 20Country shapes: AfricaMedium

    Which country has this shape?

  16. Silhouette of a narrow country with a short southern coastline, widening into a rounded northern part
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 16 of 20Country shapes: AfricaHard

    Which country has this shape?

  17. Silhouette of a coastal country with a wider north-western part and a long, thin tail running south-east along the coast, with small islands offshore
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 17 of 20Country shapes: AfricaMedium

    Which country has this shape?

  18. Silhouette of a small, almost rectangular mainland territory with a separate island to its north-west
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 18 of 20Country shapes: AfricaHard

    Which country has this shape?

  19. Silhouette of a very large country with a short northern coastline, widening in the middle and tapering to the south-east, with a long diagonal border in the south-west
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 19 of 20Country shapes: AfricaMedium

    Which country has this shape?

  20. Silhouette of a curved, boomerang-shaped country with a coastline in the west and a long arm running to the south-east
    Natural Earth (map data) · Public domain

    Question 20 of 20Country shapes: AfricaHard

    Which country has this shape?

Answer all 20 to see your score.

Want more? The Mighty Geography Quiz Book has over 1,000 questions like these, ready for your next quiz night.

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Show all the answers, with the facts behind them
  1. Which country has this shape? SomaliaSomalia's coastline, about 3,333 km long, is the longest of any country on mainland Africa.
  2. Which country has this shape? The GambiaThe Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa and, apart from its short Atlantic coast, is entirely surrounded by Senegal.
  3. Which country has this shape? MalawiLake Malawi has more fish species than any other lake on Earth, most of them brightly colored cichlids.
  4. Which country has this shape? NigeriaNigeria is Africa's most populous country, with well over 200 million people.
  5. Which country has this shape? NamibiaGermany gained the long north-eastern panhandle, the Caprivi Strip, from Britain in 1890 to give its colony access to the Zambezi River.
  6. Which country has this shape? EthiopiaEthiopia is the world's most populous landlocked country.
  7. Which country has this shape? DR CongoThe Congo is the world's deepest recorded river, with measured depths of around 220 meters.
  8. Which country has this shape? LibyaLibya's Great Man-Made River pipes ancient groundwater from beneath the Sahara to coastal cities such as Tripoli and Benghazi.
  9. Which country has this shape? AngolaAngola was a Portuguese colony until 1975, and Portuguese remains its official language.
  10. Which country has this shape? ZambiaZambia was called Northern Rhodesia until it became independent from Britain in October 1964.
  11. Which country has this shape? MozambiqueMozambique's flag is the only national flag in the world to feature a modern firearm, generally taken to be an AK-47.
  12. Which country has this shape? MaliAt its height in the 15th and 16th centuries, Timbuktu was a great center of Islamic learning, home to the famous Sankore university.
  13. Which country has this shape? TogoTogo was once part of the German colony of Togoland, which Britain and France divided between them during and after the First World War.
  14. Which country has this shape? CameroonCameroon is often called 'Africa in miniature' because it has nearly all of the continent's major climates and types of vegetation.
  15. Which country has this shape? TunisiaThe ruins of ancient Carthage stand on a hill above the Gulf of Tunis, close to the capital.
  16. Which country has this shape? BeninBenin was called Dahomey until 1975, a name taken from an old kingdom famous for its elite regiment of women soldiers.
  17. Which country has this shape? EritreaEritrea's capital, Asmara, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, thanks to its remarkably intact Italian modernist architecture.
  18. Which country has this shape? Equatorial GuineaEquatorial Guinea is the only sovereign country in Africa where Spanish is an official language.
  19. Which country has this shape? AlgeriaAlgeria has been Africa's largest country by area since Sudan split in two when South Sudan became independent in 2011.
  20. Which country has this shape? GuineaGuinea has the world's largest known reserves of bauxite, the ore used to make aluminum.
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