This goal of this paper is to present an up-to-date, accurate check-list and distribution of the monitor lizards on the African continent. No such list of their distribution has been attempted since Robert F. Mertens' (1942) treatise (Abhandlungen Senckenbergischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft, 462, 465, 466). Keywords: Varanus, African monitor lizards, African zoogeography, African lizards.