Print of hand colored steel engraving titled Afrique“.

Author Victor Lavasseur.

Engraved by unknown.

From Atlas classique universel de Geographie anciene et moderne“ by Victor Levasseur. Paris. 1830.

Victor Levasseur (1800–1870) was a French cartographer widely known for his distinctive decorative style. He produced numerous maps more admired for the artistic content of the scenes and data surrounding the map than for the detail of the map.

Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most-populous continent. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos. It has 54 fully recognized sovereign states ("countries"), nine territories and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition. Algeria is Africa's largest country by area, and Nigeria is the largest by population. Africa, particularly central Eastern Africa, is widely accepted as the place of origin of humans and the Hominidae clade (great apes), as evidenced by the discovery of the earliest hominids and their ancestors, as well as later ones that have been dated to around seven million years ago, including Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Australopithecus africanus, A. afarensis, Homo erectus, H. habilis and H. ergaster – with the earliest Homo sapiens (modern human) found in Ethiopia being dated to circa 200,000 years ago. Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones.

Approx. image size 15, 6 x 12, 1/20, 7 x 13, 9 cm.Condition: good.

Condition: good.