Algeria

Algeria is a North African country between the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara, with Morocco to the west and Tunisia and Libya to the east. At 2,381,741 km2 (919,595 sq mi), it is the largest country in Africa.

Algiers is the capital; Arabic and Amazigh are the official languages, and French is also widely used. Around 203 BC Masinissa joined the Berber lands into the kingdom of Numidia, ruled from Constantine. Rome later governed the coast, and Saint Augustine served as bishop of Hippo Regius, the present Annaba. Arab armies brought Islam between 647 and 709, after which local dynasties held power: the Hammadids built Qal'at Bani Hammad and Béjaïa, and the Zayyanids made Tlemcen a center of trade and learning from 1236 to 1550.

The Regency of Algiers, set up in 1516 with nominal ties to the Ottoman Empire, gave the modern state its name and much of its shape. France landed in 1830, and in the west Emir Abdelkader organized a state of his own to oppose it. A war of independence began in 1954; the Évian Accords followed in March 1962, and Algeria became independent on 5 July 1962. It is a semi-presidential republic, divided into provinces known as wilayas. Most people live in the fertile, hilly north, while the Sahara fills the south, where Mount Tahat in the Hoggar Mountains reaches 3,003 m (9,852 ft).

Oil and natural gas carry the economy, and the state company Sonatrach takes part in every oil and gas project, including gas deliveries to Italy with Eni. Olive, fig and palm trees grow in the warmer areas. UNESCO lists the Roman towns of Timgad and Djémila, the M'Zab Valley and the rock paintings of Tassili n'Ajjer among its sites. Couscous is the national dish. Mohammed Dib, Kateb Yacine and Assia Djebar wrote novels read far beyond Algeria, and Albert Camus also came from the country.