Algeria
Africa's largest country, where the Sahara meets the Mediterranean
Algeria is the largest country in Africa, a vast wedge of North Africa where a narrow, fertile Mediterranean coast gives way almost immediately to the immensity of the Sahara, which covers more than four-fifths of its territory. Nearly all of its roughly 47 million people crowd onto that coastal strip and into the Tell Atlas highlands behind it, leaving the desert interior nearly empty save for oasis towns and oil and gas fields. The country is a heavyweight of the Arab and African worlds, its identity forged by Berber roots, Arab conquest, Ottoman rule, and a brutal struggle for independence from France.
The land rises from the coast through the Tell Atlas, then drops into a belt of high plateaus and salt flats before climbing again to the Saharan Atlas. South of these ranges stretches the true Sahara, a sea of dunes, gravel plains, and dark volcanic massifs. In the deep south the Ahaggar (Hoggar) Mountains thrust upward to Mount Tahat, the highest point at around 3,003 meters. Algeria's economy runs on hydrocarbons: the Hassi Messaoud oil field and the Hassi R'Mel gas field make it one of the world's leading natural-gas exporters, a lifeline that funds the state but leaves it exposed to swings in energy prices.
Algeria's human story stretches back to the Numidian kingdoms and the Roman cities of Timgad and Djemila, whose ruins still stand in the highlands. The Arab conquests brought Islam and the Arabic language, while the Berbers, or Amazigh, preserved their own tongues, now officially recognized. The country endured 132 years of French colonization before winning independence in 1962 after a savage eight-year war. Today Algeria balances a powerful military-backed state, a youthful population, and ties to both the Mediterranean and the Sahel, while cities like Algiers and Oran blend French boulevards, Ottoman casbahs, and a vibrant Rai music tradition.