(Al-Jumhūrīyah al-Jazā’irīyah ad-dīmūqrātīyah ash-shaʽbīyah). State of North Africa (2,381,741 km²). Capital: Algiers (El Djazaïr). Administrative division: Wilayate (50). Population: 42,578,000 residents (2018 estimate). Language: Arabic (official), French, Tamazight (Berber national language). Religion: Sunni Muslims 99.5%, other Muslims 0.4%, others 0.1%. Monetary unit: Algerian dinar (100 cents). Human Development Index: 0.754 (85th place). Borders: Mediterranean Sea (N), Tunisiaand Libya (E), Niger, Mali and Mauritania (S), Morocco (W). Member of: Arab League, OCI, UN, OPEC and UA, OAS observer, WTO observer.
TERRITORY: MORPHOLOGY
According to Itypeusa, the borders of Algeria include in the southern part a large section of the Sahara, which in the past, during the colonial era, was an area with its own particular administration. The northern belt, on the other hand, is identified with a region that is the natural continuation of that of Morocco, the Maghreb, and is characterized by the vast mountainous area of the Atlas, divided into two distinct bands that run parallel to the coast. The Tellian Atlas, more northerly and of Pliocene origin, rises steeply near the sea and E of Algiers exceeds 2000 m in height with the Lalla Khadidja (2038 m), in the region of Kabylia. Other peaks that characterize this tormented morphology are in the Ouarsenis (1983 m) and in the Babor (2004 m) and Djurdjura (2308 m) ranges. The Tellian Atlas slopes south to the Chott plateau (800-1000 m), where salt lakes and marshes meet, with depressions reaching – 35 m below sea level. The second mountainous belt is the so-called Saharan Atlas: of more ancient origin (Eocene), it includes short ranges (Ksour, Amour, Oulad Naïl), remains of arenaceous and limestone folds that reach a maximum height of 2000 m; to the E of it rises the imposing Aurès massif (2326 m), with very harsh shapes. Before the real desert there is a desert steppe strip, then Saharan Algeria begins, with a mainly rocky landscape; here the archaeozoic base, made up of crystalline rocks, was affected by orogenetic movements in the Paleozoic era but its reliefs are now almost completely demolished. A series of lowering of the whole platform caused the entrance of the sea on several occasions and the covering of the most ancient rocks with sedimentary layers of limestone, sandstone, clays; only in correspondence with the Ahaggar massif, which reaches 2918 m with the Tahat, a high desert mountain of volcanic origin, the base re-emerges, partly covered by basaltic lavas. The region has undergone meteoric degradation and the surface rocks have fragmented, thus creating some of the most interesting examples of desert morphology, with rocky surfaces smoothed by the wind (Hamada di Tademaït) and sandy areas (Great Western and Eastern Erg) and pebbly (reg or serir).
