According to COUNTRYAAH, Algeria lies to the north with the Mediterranean Sea (998 km coastline) and borders in the east with Tunisia (965 km border) and Libya (982 km), in the south with Niger (956 km) and Mali (1376 km) and in the west and southwest with Morocco (1559 km) and Mauritania (463 km). Its total area of 2,382,000 km² is about 6.5 times as large as that of Germany.
The fertile coastal region has partly good loess soils and is extremely useful for agriculture. To the south of it the Algerian Atlas stretches with mountains up to a height of approx. 2300 meters and partly snowy winters.
The Sahara begins further south and is criss-crossed by huge plateaus. There is the highest elevation in Algeria with over 2900 meters.
The concentration of the population in the north is reflected in urbanization and the concentration of administrative resources in the north, whereas the state presence in the south is patchy.
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Climate
Due to the extreme size of the country, the climate is very different. The heavily populated north has a Mediterranean climate; The quite frequent precipitation falls mostly outside the summer months and can be up to 1000 mm, fertile agriculture is quite possible. Temperatures vary from around 10 degrees on average in January to around 25-30 degrees in August. In the Tell Atlas, precipitation in winter often falls as snow, and winter sports are possible in some places (e.g. Tikdja, Chrea).
In the highlands adjoining this to the south, the temperature fluctuations are greater (winter 0, summer 30 degrees), and precipitation is halved. To the south of this is the Sahara region, where the average rainfall is 10 mm, a hundredth of the amount in the north.
In the desert areas it is very dry, the temperature differences between day and night can be up to 50 degrees in extreme cases. The oases are often characterized by a special, relatively mild microclimate.
