Covering 30,344,000 square kilometres / 11,712,000 square miles, Africa is the second largest continent on Earth. Consisting mostly of high monotonous plateaus that drop dramatically to narrow coastal plains. Africa has few fold mountains, mainly the Atlas in the north and the older Cape ranges in the south. Some mountain ranges like the Drakensberg and the Ruwenzori are the edges of tilted plateaus, while the others are generally volcanic in origin.