Cave regions
Africa's caves are concentrated in a few limestone and dolomite regions.
Five main regions
Caves need soluble rock, and in Africa that rock is unevenly spread. Five regions hold most of the known caves.
Exploration is far from complete. Large areas have never been visited by cavers, and new long caves are still being found, especially in Madagascar.
The Atlas and the Maghreb
The limestone mountains of Morocco and Algeria contain the deepest caves in Africa. Anou Ifflis in Algeria is more than a kilometre deep. Most of these caves are for expeditions only.
The dolomite of southern Africa
A belt of very old dolomite runs across northern South Africa into Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia. It holds the fossil caves of the Cradle of Humankind, the Chinhoyi Caves and the flooded caves of the Otavi mountains.
Madagascar
Madagascar has the longest known caves in Africa. Its limestone plateaus in the west and north are cut into tsingy on the surface and hold long river caves below.
Regions side by side
| Region | Rock | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Atlas and Maghreb | Limestone | Deep shafts in Algeria and Morocco; Caves of Hercules on the coast |
| Ethiopian highlands | Limestone | Sof Omar |
| East African coast | Coral and Jurassic limestone | Amboni Caves |
| Southern African dolomite | Dolomite | Sterkfontein, Echo Caves, Chinhoyi, Otjikoto |
| Cape Fold Belt | Precambrian limestone | Cango Caves |
| Madagascar | Jurassic limestone | Tsingy de Bemaraha, Ankarana |
