Facts about Algeria
The Algerian music genre best known abroad is raп, a pop-flavored, opinionated take on folk music, featuring international stars such as Khaled and Cheb Mami.
Algeria has been inhabited by Berbers or Imazighen since at least 10,000 B.C.E.
Northern Algeria is in the temperate zone and has a mild, Mediterranean climate.
The Algerian Civil War was an armed conflict between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups which began in 1991.
The Paris Club said the move reflected Algeria's economic recovery in recent years.
The Algerian parliament is bicameral, consisting of a lower chamber, the National People's Assembly (APN), with 380 members, and an upper chamber, the Council Of Nation, with 144 members.
Meanwhile, however, the French made Algeria a colony of France, declaring it French Algeria in 1860.
Algeria also has ergs, or sand dunes between mountains, which in the summer time when winds are heavy and gusty, temperatures can rise to 110 °F (43 °C).
The Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962), brutal and long, was the most recent major turning point in the country's history.
Tens of thousands of settlers from France, Italy, Spain, and Malta moved in to farm the Algerian coastal plain and occupy the most prized parts of Algeria's cities.
Algeria is rich in prehistoric memorials of human occupation, especially in megalithic remains, of which nearly every known kind has been found in the country.
Algeria has traditionally practiced an activist foreign policy and in the 1960s and 1970s was noted for its support of Third World policies and independence movements.
Algerian society has considerable historical depth and has been subjected to a number of external influences and migrations.
After nearly a decade of urban and rural warfare, the leader of the French forces, Gen. Charles De Gaulle, initiated a referendum in which the Algerian people could decide their own fate.
List of Famous Algerian novelists of the 20th century include Mohammed Dib, Albert Camus, and Kateb Yacine, while Assia Djebar is widely translated.
Over 90 percent of the Algerian population adhere to Islam, mostly the Sunni branch.
Algeria has taken a lead in reviving the Union of the Arab Maghreb with its regional neighbors.
The name Algeria is derived from the name of the city of Algiers, and officially from the Arabic language word al-jaz?’ir which translates as "the islands."
The Berbers inhabited Algeria before the arrival of Arab tribes during the expansion of Islam, in the seventh century.
Modern Algerian literature, split between Arabic and French, has been strongly influenced by the country's recent history.
The Arabic language remains Algeria's only official language, although Tamazight has recently been recognized as a national language alongside it.
Algeria comprises 2,381,741 square kilometers of land, more than four-fifths of which is desert, in northern Africa, between Morocco and Tunisia.
The Energy Information Administration reported that in 2005, Algeria had 160 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven natural gas reserves, the 8th largest in the world.
Nearly all of Algeria's population (99 percent) is classified ethnically as Arab/Berber.
The population of Algeria was 32,930,091 according to a July 2006 estimate.
International disputes: part of the southeastern region is also claimed by Libya; Algeria supports exiled Western Saharan Polisario Front and rejects Moroccan administration of Western Sahara; some countries question its use of capital punishment.
The Algerian portion of the Sahara extends south of the Saharan Atlas for 1,500 kilometers to the Niger and Mali frontiers.
In Algeria, only a relatively small corner of the torrid Sahara lies across the Tropic of Cancer in the torrid zone.
Algeria has attempted, in recent years, to diversify its sources of military material.
Algeria has friendly relations with its other neighbors in the Maghreb, Tunisia and Libya, and with its Sub-Saharan neighbors, Mali and Niger.
The Algerian economy became increasingly dependent on oil, bringing hardship when the price collapsed in the 1980s.
The fossil fuels energy sector is the backbone of Algeria's economy, accounting for roughly 60% of budget revenues, 30% of Gross domestic product, and over 95% of export earnings.
Algeria was brought into the Ottoman Empire by Khair ad Din and his brother Aruj.
About 70 percent of Algerians live in the northern, coastal area.
There has also been an influence of Arab nationalism which was promoted by successive Algerian governments.
Algeria also decided in 2006 to pay off its full $8bn (Ј4.3bn) debt to the Paris Club group of rich creditor nations before schedule.
The modernization drive brought considerable demographic changes to Algeria.
Eastern Algeria consists of a massive area extensively dissected into mountains, plains, and basins.
Algeria's first President, the FLN leader Ahmed Ben Bella, was overthrown by his former ally and defense minister, Houari Boumйdiиnne in 1965.
Almost all of this population left during or immediately following Algeria's independence from France.
Algeria has diplomatic relations with more than 100 foreign countries, and over 90 countries maintain diplomatic representation in Algiers.
Algeria’s financial and economic indicators improved during the mid-1990s, in part because of policy reforms supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and debt rescheduling from the Paris Club.
Algeria is a leading military power in North Africa and has its force oriented toward its western Morocco and eastern Libya borders.
The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, commonly referred to as Algeria, is a nation in North Africa and is the second largest country on the African continent.
Host of the Organisation of African Unity Conference in 2000, Algeria also was key in bringing Ethiopia and Eritrea to the peace table in 2000.
Contending that the Sahrawis have a right to self determination under the United Nations Charter, Algeria has provided the Polisario with material, financial, and political support and sanctuary in southwestern Algeria's Tindouf Province.
Algerian diplomacy was instrumental in obtaining the release of U.S. hostages from Iran in 1980, and in ending the Iran-Iraq War.
The Algerian head of state is the President of the Republic, who is elected to a 5-year term, renewable once.
The Ethnologue counts 18 living languages within Algeria, splitting both Arabic and Tamazight into several different languages, as well as mentioning the unrelated Korandje language.