When people casually refer to America
in their speech, they usually
mean ‘The United States of America the country of Abraham Lincoln,
Hollywood and the greenback dollar bill. This in itself is a vast
nation of 9.8 million square kilometres (3.8m sq miles), 50 states
and 316 million inhabitants, with the most powerful economy on
earth. But it is only part of ‘the Americas which more accurately
includes Canada and the whole continent of South America, and forms
a combined landmass adding up to 29% of the Earth’s total land area.
It used to be taught in Europe at least that America was
“discovered" by Christopher Columbus in 1492 but named after Amerigo
Vespucci, the explorer from Florence, Italy, who sailed to “the New
World" in 1499. The first known use of the name America
is on a
French map dated 1507, but we now know that another European, the
Norse explorer Lief Ericson, had been there around 500 years earlier
and settled briefly in what he called Vinland. Even this
correction is a Euro-centric view, because the inhabitants entitled
to be considered indigenous moved to the Americas between 40,000 BC
and 3,500 BC from Asia.
North and South America are unique among the continents for forming
a continuous landmass between the north and south polar regions
stretching 14,000km (8,700 miles). Down the western side of both
continents runs a chain of mountains which form the Andes in the
southern continent and the Rocky Mountains in the northern. The same
collision of tectonic plates that forced up this Cordillera
Americana is responsible for the Pacific Ring of Fire an arc
having 75% of the world’s active volcanoes and 90% of its
earthquakes. The best known geological feature of the Ring of Fire
is probably the San Andreas Fault, which was responsible for the
devastating 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, and which has California
constantly on alert for the “next big one.
The continent of South America is largely in the southern hemisphere
Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname are the only sovereign countries
south of what we call Central America to lie entirely in the
northern hemisphere, along with part of Brazil, most of Colombia and
a tiny bit of Ecuador. The other countries making up the 13 are
Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and
Uruguay. Rio de Janeiro, featured in our photo gallery, is only the
3rd most populous city on the continent after São Paulo and Buenos
Aires. Indeed São Paulo is larger than any other city in the
Americas apart from New York, and with over 20 million inhabitants
is the 9th most populous city in the world. Brazil is by far the
largest country in South America, both in terms of population (193
million) and land area (8.5 million square kilometres).
From the point of view of tourism, South America is a place of
superlatives. The highest waterfall in the world, Angel Falls, is in
Venezuela; the largest rainforest is in the Amazon Basin; the
Andes
add up to the longest mountain range on earth; and the Atacama
Desert in Chile is the driest place in the world. La Paz in Bolivia
is the highest capital city and Lake Titicaca is the highest
navigable lake. The world’s southernmost permanent community is at
Puerto Toro in Chile, and one of the world’s largest slums is the
shanty town (or favela in São Paulo. Other fascinating
destinations around the continent include the Galapagos Islands, the
awesome peaks of Torres del Paine in Patagonia, and the lost
mountain top Inca settlement of Machu Picchu.
The photo galleries on this site include some of the great cities in
the Americas, with free pictures of New York and
San Francisco in
the north, and Rio de Janeiro in the south. You can navigate to
pictures of Canada and the US states of California and
Florida using
the drop-down menu. The much-larger-than-life Las Vegas and its
desert surroundings are covered, and for photos of a very different
climate go to the page on Eskimos the Inuit people.
In addition to many magnificent photos you will find interesting
facts about the history and geography of these parts of America,
alongside travel information and suggestions for places to stay and
what to see and do while you are there.
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