Connecting Northern Ireland and South Africa
Do you know where Belfast and Knynsa are in the world?
Look at the map below to locate each destination and find out a
little more about each place in the fact boxes
below. |
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A Few Facts - South Africa and Knysna
South Africa eventually shook off a system of white minority rule
in 1994. Prior to this there had been a system of apartheid and
segregation between whites and blacks. This involved the enforced
re-settlement of hundreds of thousands of the black and coloured
population and the denial of equal democratic, economic or social
rights to the black and coloured majority.
South Africa continues to struggle with the social and economic
consequences of HIV/AIDS. It is estimated that 5.5 million people
in South Africa live with HIV/AIDS and that there are 1.2 million
orphans (aged 0 - 17 years) due to HIV/AIDS (UN figures).
South Africa is the 25th largest country in the world and covers
an area of 1.22 million square kilometres or 470,979 square miles.
That means you could fit the whole of Northern Ireland into South
Africa 85 times!
South Africa as a whole has a population of 45.3 million (UN 2005).
South Africa's capital city is Pretoria. Cape Town, to the West
of Knysna, is the legislative centre and has a population of 3.2
million while Knysna has a population is approx 60,000.
South Africa has 11 official languages including English, Afrikaans,
Sesotho, Setswana, Xhosa and Zulu. In Knysna the languages mostly
spoken are Afrikaans, English and Xhosa.
South Africa's most famous landmark is Table Mountain the famous
backdrop to Cape Town.
Knysna is situated on the south coast along what is popularly known
as The Garden route. This extremely beautiful coastline is popular
with tourists. The Western Cape has an extraordinary variety of
flora, known as Fynbos, found nowhere else in the world. South Africa
as a whole boasts 10% of all of the known species of plants on Earth.
South Africa has a number of different climate zones from the extremes
of the Kalahari desert to the sub-tropical region of the North East.
Knysna enjoys a warm maritime climate with good rainfall, mild winters
and warm summers - rather like some parts of the mediterranean.
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A Few Facts - Northern Ireland and Belfast
Northern Ireland is best known for the bitter conflict known as
'The Troubles' which raged for more than 30 years. With the signing
of the Belfast Agreement in 1998 most of the paramilitary groups
have either declared the war over or are on cease fire.
Northern Ireland covers an area of 14,199 km2
or 5,459 square miles.
The estimated populaton is approx 1,685,000 (April 2001). The population
of Belfast is approx 600,000.
The Harland and Woolff shipyard in Belfast built the RMS Titanic,
the largest passenger steamship of its time. The ship became infamous
for colliding with an iceberg on its first voyage to the United
States of America in 1912. It is believed that 1,523 passengers
and crew died in the accident which made it the worst, and most
famouse, peacetime maritime disaster to date.
Slieve Donard, in the Mourne Mountains, is the highest point in
Northern Ireland at 848m, or 2,782 feet.
The Giant's Causeway, with its interlocking basalt columns, is a
result of volcanic activity 60 million years ago. It was voted a
World Heritage site in 1986.
Northern Ireland has a temperate maritime climate with significant
rainfall. Average temperatures in Belfast in the summer are 17.5
°c (63°F). Belfast has an average annual rainfal of 33 inches
per year (850mm). |
