Algeria Information Guide & Facts

Area: 2,381,740 sq km
Population: 32 million
Capital City: Algiers
People: Arab-Berber (99%), European less than 1%
Languages: Arabic (official), French, Amazigh (national but not official language)
Religion(s): Sunni Muslim (99%), Christian and Jewish (1%)
Currency: 1 Algerian dinar (DA) = 100 centimes

GEOGRAPHY
(28 00 N, 3 00 W)

Algeria is in North Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea between Morocco and Tunisia. It is the second largest country in Africa (only slightly smaller than Sudan). Over four fifths of its territory is covered by the Sahara desert.

HISTORY

The Arabs arrived in the 7th Century. The Turks held sway in the northern coastal strip from the late middle ages until the nineteenth century. In 1830, Algeria was colonised by France and ruled as part of the metropolitan France from 1848 and 1962. A bitter war of independence was fought between 1954 and 1962, which claimed the lives of up to 1.5 million people. From independence in 1963 until the late 1980s Algeria was a one-party socialist state run by the FLN (National Liberation Front).