Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is located in North Africa and bordered to the northeast by Tunisia; to the east by Libya; to the southeast by Niger; to the southwest by Mali, Mauritania, and Western Sahara; to the west by Morocco; and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea.
It is considered part of the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has a semi-arid geography, with most of the population living in the north. From the Mediterranean coast, Algeria extends south deep into the heart of the Sahara, a desert where Earth’s hottest surface temperatures have been recorded, and which constitutes more than four-fifths of the country’s area. The Sahara and its extreme climate dominate the country. Contemporary Algerian novelist Assia Djebar has highlighted this by calling her country “a dream of sand.”
The Algerian Desert (Arabic الصحراء الجزائرية) is part of the Sahara Desert. This desert occupies more than four-fifths of the country's territory. Its expansion starts from the Saharan Atlas as a more rocky desert, that gradually changes into a sand dune desert inland. The plateau of the Tassili n'Ajjer is located in the southeast, and its outstanding collection of prehistoric rock art was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1982.
Algeria covers an area of 2,381,741 square kilometers (919,595 square miles), making it the world's tenth largest nation by area, and the largest nation in Africa, more than 200 times as large as the continent’s smallest country, Gambia.
With a population of over 46 million, Algeria is the tenth-most populous country in Africa, and the 32nd-most populous country in the world. The capital and largest city is Algiers, located in the far north on the Mediterranean coast.
The official languages of the country are Arabic and Berber. The majority of Algeria's population practices Islam. The native Algerian Arabic is the main spoken language. French also serves as an administrative and educational language in some contexts, but it has no official status.
History, language, customs, and an Islamic heritage make Algeria an integral part of the Maghreb and the larger Arab world, but the country also has a sizable Amazigh (Berber) population, with links to that cultural tradition. Almost all Algerians are Berber in origin (not Arab), and only a minority identify as primarily Berber, about 15% of the total population. These people live mostly in the mountainous region of Kabylie, east of Algiers, and in several other communities around the country. The Berbers are Muslim, but identify with their Berber culture more than with an Arab cultural heritage; Berbers have tried for a long time, sometimes violently, to gain autonomy- but the government is unlikely to grant it. They have, however officially recognized Berber languages, and introduced them into public schools.
Algeria is a semi-presidential republic, with local constituencies consisting of 58 provinces and 1,541 communes. Algeria is a regional power in North Africa, and a middle power in global affairs. It has the highest Human Development Index of all continental African countries and one of the largest economies on the continent, based primarily on energy exports. The country has the world's sixteenth-largest oil reserves and the ninth-largest reserves of natural gas. Sonatrach, their national oil company, is the largest in Africa, supplying large amounts of natural gas to Europe.
Algeria's military is one of the largest in Africa, and has the largest defense budget on the continent. It is a member of the African Union, the Arab League, the OIC, OPEC, the United Nations, and the Arab Maghreb Union, of which it is a founding member.
The capital- Algiers, is a crowded bustling seaside metropolis whose historic core, medina, is surrounded by tall skyscrapers and apartment blocks. Algeria’s second biggest city is Oran, a port on the Mediterranean Sea near the border with Morocco. Less hectic than Algiers, Oran has emerged as an important center of music, art, and education.
Their Head Of State And Government is President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who is assisted by Prime Minister Ayman Benabderrahmane. Their form of government is in the style of a multiparty republic with two legislative houses (Council of the Nation and the National People’s Assembly).
There is an estimated 46,116,000 people living in Algeria right now. With a distribution percentage as follows: Urban: (2018) 72.6% • Rural: (2018) 27.4%.
