Interesting Facts

Some Interesting Facts.

Some interesting facts and amazing natural phenomena occurring here.

South Africa has a coastline of 2 954 km (almost 1 800 miles).
South Africa is as large as Texas and California combined, or larger than Germany, France and Italy combined.
South Africa is home to more mammals than North and South America combined.

South Africa is home to:
- The largest land mammal (the African elephant)
- The tallest creature (the giraffe)
- The fastest mammal (the cheetah)
- The largest reptile (the leatherback turtle)
- The largest antelope (the eland)
- The largest bird (the ostrich)
- The heaviest flying bird (the Kori bustard)
South Africa has more than 900 bird species: 10% of the planet’s selection on only 1% of its land surface.
South Africa has 23 200 different plants of which nearly 19 000 are endemic, making it the richest region in the world in terms of species to area -- 1.7 times richer even than Brazil.
The Cape Floral Kingdom within the region is the tiniest in the world, but also the richest. It has 8 500 species -- 6 000 of them found nowhere else on earth. This area produces 300 varieties of Erica alone -- two-thirds of the world’s total.
South Africa boasts seven of the around 800 world heritage sites.