50 Fun Facts About Algeria

Algeria is the largest country in Africa and ranks where in the world by area?

It spans over 2.38 million square kilometres, most of it Sahara.

The name Algeria derives from Algiers, whose Arabic name al-Jazā'ir means what?

It referred to small islands once lying off the city's coast.

Which two languages are official in Algeria?

French remains widely used in media and education but has no official status.

Roughly what share of Algerians live in the northern coastal area?

About 1.5 million people in the Sahara remain nomadic or partly nomadic.

Algeria's highest peak, Mount Tahat, stands in which Saharan mountain range?

Charles de Foucauld built a hermitage at nearby Assekrem in 1911.

Which Berber king unified Numidia in 203-202 BC after backing Rome at the Battle of Zama?

Livy praised him as an exceptional ruler; his grandson Jugurtha later provoked Rome.

Numidia's capital Cirta is today which Algerian city?

Renamed for Constantine the Great, it is nicknamed the City of Bridges for its gorge-spanning spans.

Saint Augustine was bishop of Hippo Regius, which is now which Algerian city?

He was born at Tagaste, modern Souk Ahras; his mother was Saint Monica.

Which emperor founded Timgad, the 'Pompeii of Africa' in the Aurès Mountains, around 100 AD?

Its full name honoured his mother, sister and father.

Which Berber queen defeated the Arab armies in the Aurès Mountains in the 7th century?

Also called Dihya, she followed the leader Kusayla, who had killed Oqba at Tahouda in 683.

Algiers was founded in 950 by which Sanhaja Berber emir?

He built on the site of ancient Icosium and also founded Médéa and Miliana.

The Zayyanid dynasty, which ruled the central Maghreb from 1236 to 1550, made which city its capital?

The city grew rich on trans-Saharan trade in leather, precious metals and slaves.

The medieval port of Béjaïa gave the French language its word for what?

The city exported beeswax; 'bougie' still means candle in French.

The Regency of Algiers was founded in 1516 by which corsair brothers?

They seized Algiers against Spanish expansion and placed it under Ottoman protection.

What did the Dey strike the French consul with in 1827, later France's pretext to invade?

The dispute was over debts and grain payments; the Regency fell after three centuries.

Who led Algerian resistance against the French from 1831 to 1847 and later saved Christians in Damascus?

He was held in France for five years before Napoleon III released him.

The 1945 massacre that catalysed the independence movement took place in Guelma and which town?

Brutal colonial reprisals convinced many that armed struggle was the only route.

The Algerian War began with coordinated FLN attacks on 1 November 1954, a date remembered as what?

'Red All Saints' Day'; the war brought down France's Fourth Republic.

Which March 1962 agreement led to the ceasefire and independence referendum?

France's electorate approved them on 8 April 1962.

Algeria became independent on 5 July 1962, ending how many years of French colonial rule?

More than 900,000 European pieds-noirs left between 1962 and 1964.

Who was independent Algeria's first president?

Boumédiène, his defence minister, overthrew him in 1965.

Algeria's civil war, the 'Black Decade', ran between which years?

A state of emergency then lasted until the Arab Spring protests of 2010-12.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned in April 2019 after mass protests against his bid for which term in office?

Abdelmadjid Tebboune won the December election on a record low turnout.

Algeria's flag is green and white with a red crescent and star; on what date in 1962 was it adopted?

A similar flag had been used by the government in exile from 1958.

What is Algeria's currency?

The state has invested about 100 billion dinars in research facilities.

Sonatrach, Algeria's state oil and gas group, holds what distinction?

It is a major gas supplier to Europe; Algeria's gas reserves rank ninth in the world.

Which animal is the national animal of Algeria?

The national football team is nicknamed the Desert Foxes after it.

Which dish is recognised as Algeria's national dish?

It is a staple across the Maghreb and reached French kitchens through the pieds-noirs.

Raï, the popular music of younger singers called cheb and cheba, originated in which port city?

Between the wars Oran was 'little Paris', full of cabarets and nightclubs.

Albert Camus, born in Mondovi in French Algeria in 1913, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in which year?

He was 44, the second-youngest laureate and the first born in Africa.

Frantz Fanon, the FLN member and author of The Wretched of the Earth, was born on which Caribbean island?

He was a psychiatrist who worked at Blida and helped found institutional psychotherapy.

The Great Mosque of Algiers, opened in 2019, houses the world's tallest minaret at what height?

It is the third-largest mosque in the world after Mecca and Medina, and has a helipad.

Which Algerian range, famed for prehistoric rock paintings, is the country's only natural UNESCO site?

Its eroded sandstone 'rock forests' resemble a lunar landscape.

The M'Zab, a UNESCO site around Ghardaïa, is described as a limestone valley containing what?

Ghardaïa is its best-known town.

Al Qal'a of Beni Hammad, another UNESCO site, was the first capital of which dynasty?

The Hammadids later moved their capital to Béjaïa.

The Casbah, the UNESCO-listed citadel quarter of Algiers, was built during which period?

Corsair fleets from Algiers forced European states and the young United States to pay tribute.

Algeria's greatest World Cup moment came in 1982 with a 2-1 win over which team?

The later West Germany-Austria 'non-aggression' match led FIFA to play final group games simultaneously.

Algeria has won the Africa Cup of Nations twice: as hosts in 1990 and again in which year?

The 2019 tournament was held in Egypt.

Zinedine Zidane's parents emigrated to France from a village in which Berber-speaking region of Algeria?

They left in 1953, before the war of independence began.

The Kabyles, Chaoui, Tuareg and Shenwa are Algeria's main groups of which indigenous people?

Kabyle is partially co-official in parts of Kabylie.

Sunni Islam is Algeria's official religion, practised by roughly what share of the population?

Arab Barometer surveys nonetheless show growing numbers of young Algerians calling themselves non-religious.

Which Algerian town is considered the country's 'first energy town', where oil was discovered in 1956?

It is named after the first oil well.

Which Algerian desert town recorded the world's highest mean monthly maximum temperature, 47°C?

It is rivalled only by Death Valley.

Which country conducted the 1960s nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara?

France agreed to the compensation; the tests took place around Reggane and In Ekker.

Ibn Khaldun, though born in Tunis, wrote which famous work while staying in Algeria?

Emir Abdelkader later wrote his own major work, the Kitab al-Mawaqif, in Damascus.

In which year was the University of Algiers, the country's oldest, founded?

Algeria's literacy rate is now around 92.6%.

How many provinces, or wilayas, is Algeria divided into?

They contain 1,541 communes.

Which two trans-African highways pass through Algeria?

Algeria's road network is the densest in Africa, at about 180,000 km.

Which Roman-era rebel movement's suppression is cited as a reason Christianity faded among Berbers?

Christianity became associated with Roman exploitation.

Which country's forces ended Roman control of Algeria in 429 AD?

By then most of Algeria had already reverted to Berber tribal rule.