Population: 47,022,473

The vast majority of the populace is found in the extreme northern part of the country along the Mediterranean Coast.

Area: 2,381,741 km²

slightly less than 3.5 times the size of Texas

Largest country in Africa but 80% desert; canyons and caves in the southern Hoggar Mountains and in the barren Tassili n'Ajjer area in the southeast of the country contain numerous examples of prehistoric art -- rock paintings and carvings depicting human activities and wild and domestic animals (elephants, giraffes, cattle) -- that date to the African Humid Period, roughly 11,000 to 5,000 years ago, when the region was completely vegetated.