Algeria.

Algeria is a country in the Maghred region of North Africa on the Mediterranean Coast. Its capital and most populous city are “ALGERS”. With a total area of 2,381,741 square kilometers that is 919,595 sq mi, 90% of which desert, Algeria is the tenth-largest country in the world, and the largest in the Africa and in the Mediterranean. The country is bordered in the northeast by Tunisia, in the east by Libya, in the west by Morocco, in the southwest by Western Sahara, Mauritania, and Mali, in the southeast by Niger, and in the north by the Mediterranean Sea.

Algeria is a semi-presidential republic consisting of 48 provinces and 1541 communes. With a population of 37.9 million, it is the 35^th most populated country on Earth.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been the president of Algeria since 1999 and has won four consecutive elections. However, according to the Democracy index, Algeria is an authoritarian regime.

Algeria’s economy is largely based on hydrocarbons due to which manufacturing has suffered from Dutch disease. The country supplies large amounts of natural gas to Europe, and energy exports are the backbone of the economy.

Algeria has been the 17^th largest reserves of oil in the world, and the second largest in Africa, while it has the 9^th 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 with the largest defence budget in Africa. The country’s name derives from the city’s name in turn derives from the Arabic al-jazair Bani Mazghanna (“Islands of the Mazghanna Tribe”), employed by medieval geographers such as al-Idrisi. The amalgam of peoples of North Africa coalesced eventually into a distinct native population that came to be called “Berbers, who are the indigenous peoples of Northern Africa.

Last year January 2013, Algeria’s population was an estimated 37.9 million, who are mainly Arab-Berber ethnically. At the outset of the 20^th century, its population was approximately four million.

About 90% of Algerians live in the northern, coastal area; the inhabitants of the Sahara desert are mainly concentrated in Oases, although some 1.5 million remain nomadic or partly nomadic 28.1% of Algerians are under the age of 15.

Algeria lies mostly between latitudes 19°S and 37°N (a small area is north of 37°), and longitudes 9°W and 12°E. Most of the coastal area is hilly, sometimes even mountainous, and there are a few natural harbours.

The area from the coast to the Tell Atlas is fertile. South of the Tell Atlas is a steppe landscape ending with the Saharan Atlas; farther south, there is the Saharan desert. Both Atlas tend to merge in eastern Algeria. The Vast Mountain ranges of Aures and Nememcha occupy the entire northeastern.

Algeria and are delineated by the Tunisian border. The highest point is Mount Tahat (3,003m). The Sahara, the Ahaggar and the Atlas Mountains compose the Algeria relief. The Ahaggar Mountains also known as the Hoggar are a highland region in Central Sahara, Southern Algeria. They are located about 1,500 (932 mi) south of the capital, Algiers, and just west of Tamanghasset. Algiers, Oran, Constantine, and Annaba, are Algeria’s main Cities.

In this region, midday desert temperature can be hot year round. After sunset, however, the clear, dry air permits rapid loss of heat and the nights are cool to chilly.

The highest official temperature was 50.6°C (123.1°F) at in Salah Rainfall is fairly plentiful along the coast part of the Tell Atlas, ranging from 400 to 670mm (15.7 to 26.4 in) annually, the amount of precipitation increasing from West to East. Precipitation is heaviest in the northern part of eastern Algeria where it reaches as much as 1,000mm (69.4in) in some years.

Farther inland, the rainfall is less plentiful. Algeria also has ergs, or sand dunes, between mountains. Among these, in the summer time when winds are heavy and gusty, temperatures can get up to 110°F (43.3°C).