Prelims ask
Three countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia. Egypt is the usual wrong option. Toubkal, not Kilimanjaro.
Africa · Young fold
Atlas
- Countries
- Southwest to northeast: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia.
- Length
- About 2,500 km. Exam-safe figure.
- Orientation
- Southwest–northeast, folded into several chains (High, Middle, Tell, Saharan, Anti-Atlas).
- Mountain type
- Young fold
- Plates
- African plate converging with Eurasia at the western Mediterranean.
- Highest peak
- Toubkal, 4,167 m, High Atlas, Morocco.
- Rivers that rise here
- Short seasonal rivers: Sebou and Moulouya toward the Atlantic and Mediterranean. No Nile headwater.
- Climate and rain shadow
- Northern slopes take Mediterranean winter rain. The southern slope is the rain-shadow edge of the Sahara.
Mains use
East–west young fold, windward Mediterranean side, leeward desert. One of the five standard examples with Andes, Himalayas, Alps and Rockies.