Albania

Albania is a Balkan country on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, bordered by Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Greece. The capital, Tirana, is also its biggest city, ahead of Durrës, Vlorë and Shkodër. Albanian is the official language, with a standard form based mostly on the southern Tosk dialect rather than the northern Gheg.

Illyrian tribes such as the Taulantii and Ardiaei held the land in antiquity, while Greeks founded colonies on the coast, most notably Apollonia. After the Illyrian Wars it passed to Rome and then Byzantium, and in the Middle Ages the Principality of Arbanon and other Albanian states arose. In the 15th century Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg united several principalities in the League of Lezhë and defeated Ottoman armies under Murad II and Mehmed II for more than two decades. Ottoman rule then lasted about four centuries, during which many Albanians became Muslim, and the Albanian Renaissance of the 19th century revived the language and national feeling.

The Assembly of Vlorë declared independence on 28 November 1912. Zog turned the republic into a monarchy in 1928. After World War II a communist government under Enver Hoxha kept the country closed to the outside world. Multiparty elections came in 1991. Albania joined NATO in 2009 and became a European Union candidate in 2014. Government rests with a prime minister, while the president's role in the parliamentary republic is ceremonial.

On 28,748 km² (11,100 sq mi), mountains such as the Albanian Alps and Mount Korab, at 2,764 m (9,068 ft), give way to coastal plains. Services lead the economy, with manufacturing and tourism, and electricity generation relies on hydropower. Butrint, the old towns of Berat and Gjirokastër and the Ohrid region shared with North Macedonia are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and folk music differs between the rugged Gheg north and the Lab and Tosk south.