Algeria (Arabic: الجزائر IPA [ɛlʤɛˈzɛːʔir], Berber (Tamazight) : Lz̦ayer [ldzæjər]), officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is a country in north Africa, and the second largest country on the African continent, Sudan being the largest.[1] It is bordered by Tunisia in the northeast, Libya in the east, Niger in the southeast, Mali and Mauritania in the southwest, and Morocco as well as a few kilometers of its annexed territory, Western Sahara, in the west. Constitutionally, it is defined as an Islamic, Arab, and Amazigh (Berber) country. The name Algeria is derived from the name of the city of Algiers, and officially from the Arabic word al-jazā’ir, which translates as the islands, referring to the four islands which lie off that city's coast until becoming part of the mainland in 1525. But the most realistic version is that Algiers derives from "Ziriya Bani Mazghana" (used by early medieval geographers such as al-Idrisi and Yaqut al-Hamawi)in reference to its founder, the Amazigh king Ziri (the city of Ziri the Amazigh), the founder of the medieval city of Algiers. Unfortunately, in order to hide the Amazigh origin of Algeria’s name that goes against the Arabo-nationalistic policy of the Algerian governments, this Amazigh origin is put aside.
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