Africa Distance Calculator: Distances Between African Cities

Choose two of 60 African capitals and major cities to get the straight-line (great-circle) distance in kilometres and miles, the compass direction and an estimated flight time, with the route drawn on a map. For example, Cairo to Cape Town is about 7,240 km (4,500 miles) and Lagos to Nairobi about 3,810 km.

Africa is about 8,000 km from north to south and 7,400 km from west to east, so many intra-African trips are as long as flights across Europe or the United States. For road routes, border crossings and airports on specific journeys, see the city-to-city distance pages.

Select Two Cities

Distance
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Estimated Flight Time
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Time in the air (estimate)
Direction
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From origin

Route Information

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Straight Line Distance: -

Popular Routes

About Distance Calculations

How We Calculate

Our distance calculator uses the Haversine formula to calculate the great-circle distance between two points on Earth. This gives you the shortest distance between two locations (as the crow flies), not the actual travel distance by road or flight path.

Understanding the results

  • Distance: the straight-line distance between city centres, in kilometres and miles (1 mile = 1.609 km).
  • Flight time: the distance divided by an average cruising speed of about 800 km/h. This is time in the air only; allow about 30 minutes more for take-off, climb and landing. Real schedules also depend on routing and winds, and many African city pairs have no nonstop flight, so journeys often connect through hubs such as Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Casablanca, Cairo or Lagos.
  • Direction: the initial compass bearing from the first city to the second.

Road distances are longer

Driving distances are usually 20–40% longer than the straight line, and much more where roads detour around deserts, lakes or closed borders. Some examples: Johannesburg to Cape Town is about 1,260 km in a straight line but about 1,400 km by road on the N1; the land border between Algeria and Morocco has been closed since 1994; and overland travel through Sudan, the Sahel and eastern DR Congo is currently unsafe in many areas. Check official travel advice before planning an overland trip.

Popular route guides

These pages give the distance, flight time, airports, road routes and border crossings for common journeys:

See also African time zones, visa requirements and the map of Africa.