Algeria is the second largest country in Africa; it stretches for nearly 1600 kilometers along the Mediterranean coast and inland beyond the Sahara desert to Niger and Mali. It shares borders with Morocco and Mauritania to the west and Libya to the east. Algeria is a place of contrasts: snow-capped mountains, lush oases, sand dunes, craggy escarpments and hot dry plains can all be found here. Much of the country is vast, untamed desert where almost nothing grows. However, Algeria also has many areas of rich, fertile farmland.
