South Africa occupies the southern tip of Africa,
its long coastline stretching more than 2 500km from the desert
border with Namibia on the Atlantic coast southwards around the
tip of Africa and then north to the border with subtropical Mozambique
on the Indian Ocean.
The low-lying coastal zone is narrow for much of that distance,
soon giving way to a mountainous escarpment that separates it
from the high inland plateau. In some places, notably the province
of KwaZulu-Natal in the east, a greater distance separates the
coast from the escarpment.
Although the country is classified as semi-arid, it has considerable
variation in climate as well as topography.
The great inland Karoo plateau, where rocky hills and mountains
rise from sparsely populated scrubland, is very dry, and gets
more so as it shades in the north-west towards the Kalahari desert.
Extremely hot in summer, it can be icy in winter.
In contrast, the eastern coastline is lush and well watered, a
stranger to frost. The southern coast, part of which is known
as the Garden Route, is rather less tropical but also green, as
is the Cape of Good Hope - the latter especially in winter. This
south-western corner of the country has a Mediterranean climate,
with wet winters and hot, dry summers. Its most famous climatic
characteristic is its wind, which blows intermittently virtually
all year round, either from the south-east or the north-west
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