South Africa occupies the southern tip of Africa, its coastline stretching more than 2,850 kilometres from the desert border with Namibia on the Atlantic coast southwards around the tip of Africa and northeast to the border with Mozambique on the Indian Ocean. The low-lying coastal zone is narrow for much of that distance, soon giving way to a mountainous escarpment that separates the coast from the high inland plateau. In some places, notably the province of KwaZulu-Natal in the east, a greater distance separates the coast from the escarpment. Although most of the country is classified as semi-arid, it has considerable variation in climate as well as topography; the total land area is 1,220,813 km2. It has the 23rd largest Exclusive Economic Zone of 1,535,538 km2; the South African central plateau contains only two major rivers: the Limpopo, the Orange which runs with a variable flow across the central landscape from east to west, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean at the Namibian border. The eastern and southern coastal regions are drained by numerous shorter rivers.

There are few coastal rivers along the arid west coast north of 31°30′S. In such a dry country and irrigation are important: the largest dam is the Gariep on the Orange River. Like much of the African continent south of the Sahara, South Africa's landscape is dominated by a high Central Plateau surrounded by coastal lowlands; this plateau is rimmed by the Great Escarpment which extends northwards to about 10° south of the Equator In South Africa the plateau is at its highest in the east where its edge varies in altitude between 2,000 m and 3,300 m. This edge of the plateau, as the land drops to the coastal plain, forms a high, steep escarpment known as the Drakensberg Mountains; the southern and western extents of the escarpment are not as high as Drakensberg, but are known by a wide variety of local names, all termed "mountains", in spite of being parts of an escarpment whose top is the central plateau. From the coastal plain the escarpment does, look like a range of mountains, hence the names.

The portion of the Great Escarpment that could be designated a "mountain" is where it forms the international border between KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho. The Lesotho Highlands form a localized high spot on the Central Plateau; this is because it is capped by a 1,400 m thick layer of erosion resistant lava which welled up and spread across most of Southern Africa when it was still part of Gondwana. Most of this lava has eroded away together with a layer of Karoo sedimentary rocks several kilometres thick on top of which the lava was poured out 182 million years ago. Only a small patch of this lava covers much of Lesotho, it has been eroded by the tributaries of the Orange River which drain these highlands towards the south-west. This gives this high region its rugged, mountainous appearance; the central plateau forms a flat, tilted surface which, as indicated above, is highest in the east, sloping downwards to the west. The downward slope to the south is less pronounced; the plateau slopes downwards, northwards from about the 25° 30' S line of latitude, into a 150‑million-year-old failed rift valley which cuts into the central plateau and locally obliterates the Great Escarpment, forming what is today known as the Limpopo Lowveld at less than 500 m above sea level.

The rivers which drain the plateau therefore run west via the Orange River, into the Atlantic Ocean. North of the Witwatersrand, where the land starts to slope down towards the north, the drainage is into the Limpopo River and from there into the Indian Ocean; the coastal plain, which varies in width from about 60 km in the north-west to over 250 km in the north-east slopes downwards from the foot of the escarpment to the coast. Numerous small rivers drain the area, being more numerous in the KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Midlands regions, where they arise on the well watered slopes of the high escarpment, than elsewhere. In the west there are few such rivers because of the aridity of the region. In the south and south-west the coastal plain contains a series of mountain ranges that run parallel to the coastline; these are the Cape Fold Mountains, whose rocks were laid down 510 – 350 million years ago, were crumpled into a series of parallel folds by the collision of the Falkland Plateau into the south of what was to become Africa when it was part of Gondwana.

These series of parallel folds are in the form of an "L", with the western section running north–south, the eastern section running east–west, for a total length of about 800 km. The right angle of the "L" occurs in the south-western corner of the country, just inland from the Cape Peninsula and Cape Town; these folds lie along the coastline in the south and are not much more than 100 km wide in total along most of their length. In the west they are separated from the coast by a pronounced coastal plain; the floors of the long valleys between the parallel mountains ranges consist of fertile soils composed of weathered mudstones belonging to the Bokkeveld Group of the Cape Supergroup, as opposed to the nutrient-poor, sandy soils on the quartzitic sandstone mountains, on either side of the valleys. However, the rainfall is, in general, bordering on the semiarid (or frankly semiarid in, for instance, the Little

Karima is a town in Northern State in Sudan some 400 km from Khartoum on a loop of the Nile. Karima houses the Jebel Barkal Museum; the hill of Jebel Barkal is near Karima. Beside it are the ruins of Napata, a city-state of ancient Nubia on the west bank of the Nile River, including the temples of Amun and Mut; the Shaigiya tribe lived around Karima and Korti, but suffered for their support of the British against the Mahdi. The land around Karima is a center for cultivation of Barakawi dates. Karima is a terminus of a branch narrow gauge railway of the Sudan Railways system. Halfway between Karima and El-Kurru there is an area with a large number of petrified trees. Karima has a hot desert climate. Jebel Barkal Napata Railway stations in Sudan

Anable Basin is a 500-foot-long artificial inlet of the East River located in the Long Island City section of Queens, New York City. A public walkway along the southwest side of the basin was constructed as part of the Queens West development in 2012; the basin contains several private vessels, the former Water's Edge restaurant, a former Prudence Island ferry boat, a floating dock owned by Long Island City Community Boathouse, used for its kayaking programs. In November 2018 it was announced that Amazon would be building its large Amazon HQ2 campus on the land surrounding the basin. However, these plans have since been canceled; the basin's namesake is Henry Sheldon Anable, the basin's financier. Anable was a prominent figure in local business and politics in 1860s, the time of the basin's creation, he was the nephew-in-law of then-president of Union College, Eliphalet Nott, who owned much of the land around Hunter's Point. Anable's ancestors were among the early Puritan settlers of Massachusetts, arriving in 1623.

He is a descendant of Anthony Annable, a passenger of the Anne, the third ship to arrive in the Plymouth Colony. The inlet was carved in 1868 at a time when Long Island City was home to numerous oil refineries and factories. At the time of the canal's creation, a mastodon bone was found on the site of the basin. For much of the 20th century, the major industrial property on the basin was Pepsi-Cola, which had its bottling plant at the point where Anable Basin meets the East River. In 1937 the prolific advertising firm Artkraft-Strauss Sign Corporation installed the cursive ruby-colored neon-on-metal Pepsi-Cola sign atop the bottling plant and it became an instant point of reference for Manhattan residents and passing ships; when the bottling plant was demolished in 1999, the iconic 120-foot-long sign was dismantled and reassembled at a nearby site by Rockrose Development Corporation. The sign is an official city landmark and part of Gantry Plaza State Park, which lines the shore of East River between Anable Basin and Hunters Point.

In 1980, Water's Edge, a waterfront restaurant specializing in wedding venue, opened on the north side of the basin. It operated for over 30 years, until the then-owner was indicted for fraud charges. A new eatery, Anable Basin Sailing Bar & Grill, has since opened across the street; the eatery offers mooring for vessels, picnic tables by the waterfront and a mixture of American and ethnic dishes including ćevapi, a Bosnian sausage. In October 2007, artist Chico MacMurtrie introduced the sculpture A Tree for Anable Basin in the basin; the 24-foot-high aluminum tree was set atop a floating island planted with native grass species. MacMurtrie is the founder of the Brooklyn-based workshop Amorphic Robot Works. In August 2012, to showcase sustainable agriculture, Cooper Union architecture student Karim Ahmed designed a hydroponic garden atop a 20-foot raft, launched in the Anable Basin. Waterpod, as the project was called, grew sunflowers, corn, a baby nectarine tree; the project was inspired by the chinampa floating farms used in Aztec society.

Ahmed's raft was moored at the northwest corner of the basin where Anable Basin Sailing Bar & Grill is located. In June 2017, local art curator Brandon Stosuy in collaboration with Matthew Barney and a group of other artists installed a countdown clock at the entrance of Anable Basin, visible from Manhattan; the art piece counts down the hours remaining in President Donald Trump's first term. In 2017, local real estate firms TF Cornerstone and Plaxall separately submitted proposals to the city to rezone the area around Anable Basin for development. TF Cornerstone's plan for 1,000 apartments and a light manufacturing complex was submitted in July, while Plaxall submitted its plan for a 700-foot tower in December; the following year, the northern end of the Basin became part of the planned Amazon HQ2 Long Island City campus. Due to community opposition, Amazon withdrew its plans to build the Amazon HQ2 campus in February 2019. According to The City, following Amazon's decision to not try to build a second headquarters near Anable Basin, the New York City Council invited three property developers to prepare plans for future development of the neighborhood.

The three developers were TF Cornerstone, Simon Baron Development, L&L Mag. A spokesman for city council explained “One of the main problems we had with Amazon’s proposal was the lack of community engagement. We’re happy that these stakeholders are being proactive, we look forward to being active participants in the process.” The Justice For All Coalition has called for any future development to be not-for-profit enterprises, to restrict future commercial development. Queens West