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Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30,221,532 km² (11,668,545 sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area, and 20.4% of the total land area. With more than 900,000,000 people (as of 2005) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. There are 46 countries including Madagascar, and 53 including all the island groups. |
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| Sal (Portuguese for "salt" -- from the mines at Pedra de Lume) is an island in the country of Cape Verde, and the municipality of the same name. The island is 30 km long by 12 km wide. It belongs to the northern group of islands, called Barlavento and is one of the three sandy eastern islands (Sal, Boa Vista and Maio) of the archipelago, with white sandy beaches and fairly flat, with the highest elevation of 406 m at Monte Grande. Serra Negra has a height of 92 m.
The island was discovered on December 3, 1460 and named Llana until salt deposits were found. Sal is the oldest island in Cape Verde, formed 50 million years ago during the eruption of a volcano which is now inactive.
Sal's main town, Vila dos Espargos, is home to one of the nation's international airports and has around 8,000 inhabitants. Its population grew around salt collection and later shifted to fishing, but is now based on tourism (amounting to 50% of the archipelago's tourism) at the beach resort of Santa Maria.
Its airport, Amilcar Cabral International Airport, was used as a refuelling base by South African Airways on its Johannesburg to London routes. Later, flights to and from New York and Atlanta also refuelled there, and the island was a crew-change station. SAA established the long runways needed by the fully-fueled Boeing 707s on their take-offs in the high temperatures. On July 1, 2006, SAA operated its final flight to Sal due to the ending of its flights to Atlanta.
Saline marshes can be found in the Pedra Lume crater and north of Santa Maria.
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