🇩🇿

Algeria

✨ The Sahara giant

Algeria is a country in North Africa, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north and extending deep into the Sahara to the south. Its capital, Algiers, lies on the Mediterranean coast. Covering about 2.38 million square kilometres, Algeria is the largest country in Africa and one of the largest in the world. Its territory includes several major landscapes: coastal plains and mountains in the north, the High Plateaus farther south, and vast desert regions beyond them.

The Tell Atlas and Saharan Atlas mountain ranges cross the northern part of the country, while the Ahaggar Mountains rise in the far south. This diversity of landforms and climates creates very different natural environments within the same country. Most of the population and many major cities, ports and economic activities are concentrated in the north. Moving inland, the climate becomes more continental, with generally greater differences between summer and winter temperatures.

In the Sahara, very long distances and scarce rainfall strongly influence settlement and transport. Algeria's northern regions have a Mediterranean climate, with relatively mild, wetter winters and hot, generally dry summers. Rainfall decreases sharply toward the south, where the Sahara dominates the landscape. Despite its extreme aridity, the desert is not without life: oases, rocky mountains, gravel plains and sandy areas provide habitats for species adapted to limited water.

Algeria also has important natural resources, particularly petroleum and natural gas, much of which is found in the Sahara. Arabic and Tamazight are the country's official languages, while French is also widely used in education, business and everyday communication. Since the 2026 territorial reform, Algeria has 69 wilayas and 1,541 communes.

💡 Did you know?

Algeria has seven incredible UNESCO heritage sites. One of them, Tassili n'Ajjer, is like an open-air museum in the middle of the desert! There are more than 15,000 drawings and engravings dating back 10,000 years. At the time, the Sahara was not a desert but a green savanna with hippos and giraffes!

Do you know the city of Constantine? It's called the 'City of Hanging Bridges.' It's spectacularly built on giant rocks split in two by an immense ravine. To go from one district to another, you have to take very high bridges that give the impression of flying over the void. It's impressive!

Algeria has one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world stretching 1,200 km, but the most surprising are its Roman 'ghost towns' like Timgad. These are entire cities with theaters, triumphal arches, and thermal baths, which have remained almost intact for 2,000 years because they were protected by the desert sand!