Chad / Republic of Chad
A landlocked country in Central Africa.
∇ Location: view on Google Maps
Chad – interesting facts:
- Republic of Chad is a landlocked country in central Africa, the fifth largest on the continent and 20th largest in the world.
- There more than 200 ethnic groups and more than 100 languages and dialects are spoken there.
- National symbols of Chad: goat and lion.
- The flag of Chad (with blue, yellow and red stripes) is almost the same as the flag of Romania (the shade of blue is deeper on Chad’s flag).
- The name of the country comes from Lake Chad (“tsade” means “large body of water, lake”). The lake has shrunk by 90% since the 1960s.
- The Sahara Desert covers one third of the country. Because of that Chad is called “The Dead Heart of Africa”.
- It is rich in gold, uranium and oil. However, it is one of the world’s least developed countries.
- UNESCO World Heritage site – Lakes of Ounianga – it is a group of 18 lakes of different colors (blue, green, red).
- Chad is also called “a craddle of humanity”. The oldest hominid fossil, named Toumaï, was discovered there. It is thought to be 7 million years old.