Algeria

Guide to ALGERIA

ALGERIA which official name is People's Democratic Republic of Algeria or Algeria, is a country from Africa located at the Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Morocco and Tunisia. ALGERIA with 6,343 km sq km, limits with: Libya 982 km, Mali 1,376 km, Mauritania 463 km, Morocco 1,559 km, Niger 956 km, Tunisia 965 km, Western Sahara 42 km; and is divided in 48 provinces . ALGERIA's capital is Algiers which is the most populated city with about 1,980,242 inhabitants.

History of ALGERIA

ALGERIA's government is republic; a Republic with a Executive government type, with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika as head of state and Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem as head of government.

Other symbols of ALGERIA are Algerian motto " By the people and for the people Algerian anthem "Kassaman (We Pledge) Algerian flag.Algerian flag is composed by two equal vertical bands of green (hoist side) and white; a red, five-pointed star within a red crescent centered over the two-color boundary; the crescent, star, and color green are traditional symbols of Islam (the state religion) .

ALGERIA's history is quite long: After more than a century of rule by France, Algerians fought through much of the 1950s to achieve independence in 1962. Algeria's primary political party, the National Liberation Front (FLN), has dominated politics ever since. Many Algerians in the subsequent generation were not satisfied, however, and moved to counter the FLN's centrality in Algerian politics. The surprising first round success of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in the December 1991 balloting spurred the Algerian army to intervene and postpone the second round of elections to prevent what the secular elite feared would be an extremist-led government from assuming power. The army began a crackdown on the FIS that spurred FIS supporters to begin attacking government targets. The government later allowed elections featuring pro-government and moderate religious-based parties, but did not appease the activists who progressively widened their attacks. The fighting escalated into an insurgency, which saw intense fighting between 1992-98 and which resulted in over 100,000 deaths - many attributed to indiscriminate massacres of villagers by extremists. The government gained the upper hand by the late-1990s and FIS's armed wing, the Islamic Salvation Army, disbanded in January 2000. However, small numbers of armed militants persist in confronting government forces and conducting ambushes and occasional attacks on villages. The army placed Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA in the presidency in 1999 in a fraudulent election but claimed neutrality in his 2004 landslide reelection victory. Longstanding problems continue to face BOUTEFLIKA in his second term, including the ethnic minority Berbers' ongoing autonomy campaign, large-scale unemployment, a shortage of housing, unreliable electrical and water supplies, government inefficiencies and corruption, and the continuing - although significantly degraded - activities of extremist militants. Algeria must also diversify its petroleum-based economy, which has yielded a large cash reserve but which has not been used to redress Algeria's many social and infrastructure problems.

ALGERIAs geography

Guide to travel to ALGERIA

If you are thinking on traveling to ALGERIA, you will have to take in consideration some points like ALGERIA's currency, ALGERIA's weather, ALGERIA's national holiday and ALGERIA's transports.

The first thing you need to know for your travels abroad is country's currency. ALGERIA`s currency is called dinar ( DA), which is divided in 100 centimes. For your consideration, dinar's exchange rate is about 's exchange rate is about per dolar.60.2402672781.

ALGERIA's weather is characterized to be arid to semiarid; mild, wet winters with hot, dry summers along coast; drier with cold winters and hot summers on high plateau; sirocco is a hot, dust/sand-laden wind especially common in summer. So be sure of choosing the proper date to travel to ALGERIA.

You can also consider to visit ALGERIA on it's national holiday to get in ALGERIA's culture. If you do so, ALGERIA's national holiday is called Revolution Day, 1 November.

Also, if you like natural wonders, don't forget to visit the highest point of ALGERIA: Tahat 3,003 m. And try also to get to ALGERIA's lowest point: Chott Melrhir -40 mBut if you prefer the city, you must visit ALGERIA's tallest structure: ( ).

Don't be afraid to take a flight to ALGERIA, with more than 142 airports and 1 airlines, you will get to ALGERIA without problems. Once there, you can choose the transport type that better fits your needs. ALGERIA has about3,973 of railways, and also0 of roadways, so is a good place for a car trip.

Algerian Culture

ALGERIA is known by Algerians as Al Jumhuriyah al Jaza'iriyah ad Dimuqratiyah ash Sha'biyah or Al Jaza'ir in the shortened way. Algerian, about 33,333,216 people, are composed by different ethnics: Arab-Berber 99%, European less than 1%. And they also have different languages: Arabic.

Another relevant point nowadays it's ALGERIA's religion. Algerians are divided in Sunni Muslim (state religion) 99%, Christian and Jewish 1%.

But if want to know more about ALGERIA's culture, the best way is by reading the most famous Algerian novelists' books like Le�la Sebbar, Mouloud Mammeri (1917�1989) or Tahar Djaout (1954�1993).

Videos of Algeria

See some viedos of Algeria's places and tourism before choosing your vacations destination.

Photos of Algeria