This map was published by Kai Krause in 2010. It shows the size of Africa compared to the size of many other countries with the aim of showing the reality of the African continent.
After its publication, the map was reproduced in numerous blogs and media outlets, achieving significant impact. Today, it remains one of the most iconic images used to illustrate the underrepresentation of Africa on maps that use the Mercator projection.
In the illustration, Kai Krause includes several countries within Africa to show the equivalent size: the United States, China, India, Japan, the United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, and Eastern Europe. Similarly, the author clarifies that the representation is intended to be visual, and that some islands of some countries are missing and some parts overlap, but even so, the sum of the areas is equivalent.
Finally, the author also includes five maps of Africa in which he compares the surface area of this continent independently with that of the United States, Europe, India, Japan, and China, in order to reinforce his message.
You can find out more about the true size of countries in this article.
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