Algeria

Algeria
Algeria (i/ælˈdʒɪəriə/ or /ɔːl-/; Literary Arabic: الجزائر al-Jazāʼir; Algerian Arabic, Tamazight: Dzayer, ⴷⵣⴰⵢⴻⵔ; French: Algérie), officially People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in North Africa on the Mediterranean coast. Its capital and most populous city is Algiers. With an area of 2,381,741 square kilometres (919,595 sq mi), 90% of which is desert, Algeria is the tenth-largest country in the world and the largest in the Arab world and Africa.[10] It is bordered to the northeast by Tunisia, to the east by Libya, to the west by Morocco, to the southwest by Western Sahara, Mauritania, and Mali, to the southeast by Niger, and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea.

The territory of today's Algeria was the home of many prehistoric cultures, including Aterian and Capsian and the Proto-Berber. It has known many empires and dynasties, including ancient Numidians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Umayyads, Abbasids, Idrisid, Aghlabid, Rustamid, Fatimids, Zirid, Hammadids, Almoravids, Almohads, Ottomans and the French colonial empire. Algeria is a semi-presidential republic of 48 provinces and 1,541 communes. Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been President since 1999. Algeria supplies large amounts of natural gas to Europe, and energy exports are the backbone of the economy. According to OPEC Algeria has the 17th largest reserves of oil in the world, and the second largest in Africa, while it has the 9th largest reserves of natural gas. Sonatrach, the national oil company, is the largest company in Africa.

Algeria has the second largest military in North Africa, and the largest defence budget in Africa.[11][12] It is a member of the African Union, the Arab League, OPEC, and the United Nations, and is a founding member of the Arab Maghreb Union.