Algeria - Tourism and Travel

The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is a country in northwest Africa, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

Algeria is the largest country in Africa,with an area of 919,595 square miles (2,831,741 square kilometers.) It was the second largest country until 2011, when Sudan, formerly Africa's largest nation, was divided into two separate countries.

The Tell Atlas Mountains, which run across Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, are south of the coast. These are forested mountains which get a good deal of rain. The Tell Atlas mountains are the northern range of the Atlas Mountains, a mountain chain that is more than 1,200 miles (1,931 kilometers) long.

The Atlas Mountains are part of a system of fold mountains that runs across a large part of southern Europe as well as northern Africa.

The Tell Atlas Mountains are still being formed. Their formation frequently causes tremors in the Earth.

Below the Tell Atlas Mountains in Algeria, there is steppe and then the Sahara Desert.

The Sahara is the Earth's largest hot desert. It takes up almost one third of Africa.

A plateau of crystalline rock underlies the Sahara. Parts of this plateau are more than four billion years old.

Desert winds create sand dunes in the Sahara.

The Grand Erg Oriental and the Grand Erg Occidental are located in the Sahara Desert in Algeria. An erg is area of desert where a large amount of sand has accumulated

The Sahara Atlas is the southern chain of the Atlas Mountains. The Sahara Atlas runs through Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

In southern Algeria, in the Sahara, there are the Ahaggar mountains.

There is a Mediterranean climate along the coast of Algeria. In the interior of the country, the climate is semi-arid or arid.

The capital of Algeria is Algiers.

34,895,000 people live in Algeria.

75% are Arab and 24% are Berber.

The official language is Arabic. French and Tamazight are also spoken.

99% of the people are Sunni Muslim. 1% are either Christian or Jewish.

Most of the people live along the coast or along the northern slopes of the Tell Atlas Mountains, where the soil is fertile.

More than 95% of Algeria's export earnings comes from oil, natural gas and related products.

About one fourth of the workforce is involved in agriculture.

Algeria has a presidential system of government.

The official currency is the dinar, which is equal to 100 centimes.