Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is the largest country on the African continent after
Sudan. It is bordered by Tunisia in the northeast, Libya in the east, Niger in the southeast, Mali and Mauritania in the southwest, and Morocco as well as a few kilometers of its annexed territory, Western Sahara, in the west. Constitutionally, it is defined as an Islamic, Arab, and Amazigh (Berber) country. The name Algeria is derived from the name of the city of Algiers (French Alger), from the Arabic word al-jazā段r, which translates as the islands, referring to the four islands which lay off that city's coast until becoming part of the mainland in 1525; al-jazā段r is itself short for the older name jazā段r banī mazghannā, "the islands of (the tribe) Bani Mazghanna", used by early medieval geographers such as al-Idrisi and Yaqut
al-Hamawi. The name Algeria is derived from the name of the city of Algiers (French Alger), from the Arabic word al-jazā段r, which translates as the islands, referring to the four islands which lay off the city's coast until becoming part of the mainland in 1525. Al-jazā段r is itself a truncated form of the city's older name jazā段r banī mazghannā, "the islands of (the tribe) Bani Mazghanna", used by early medieval geographers such as al-Idrisi and Yaqut al-Hamawi. Algeria is currently divided into 48 wilayas (provinces), 553 dairas (counties) and 1,541 baladiyahs (municipalities). The capital and the largest city of each Algerian wilaya, daira, and baladiyah always has the same name as the wilaya, the daira, or the baladiyah it is located in, the same holds for the largest daira of the wilaya or the largest baladiyah of the daira. According to the Algerian constitution, a wilaya is a "territorial collectivity" enjoying some economic freedom, the APW, or "L'Assembl馥 Populaire Wilayale" (the Popular "Wilayale" Parliament) is the political entity governing a province, directed by the "Wali" (Prefect), who is chosen by the Algerian President to handle the APW's decisions, the APW has also a "president", who is elected by the members of the APW.
Most of the coastal area is hilly, sometimes even mountainous, and there are few good harbours. The area just south of the coast, known as the Tell, is fertile. Further south is the Atlas mountain range and the Sahara desert. Algiers, Oran and Constantine are the main cities. Algeria's climate is arid and hot, although the coastal climate is mild, and the winters in the mountainous areas can be severe. Algeria is prone to sirocco, a hot dust- and sand-laden wind especially common in summer.
Algeria's official language, Arabic, is spoken natively in dialectal form ("Darja") by some 80% of the population, and, as in the entire Arab world, used in the Modern Standard Arabic variant in the media and on official occasions. Some 20% of the population, identified as Berbers or Imazighen, are native speakers not of Arabic, but of some dialect of Tamazight. French is still the most widely studied foreign language, and widely spoken (distantly followed by English), but very rarely spoken as a native language. Since independence, the government has pursued a policy of linguistic Arabization of education and bureaucracy, with some success, although many university courses continue to be taught in French.
