Second largest country in Africa

By ⋅ December 13, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment
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Grande Mosquée d'Alger (Photo: Losdastos)

Our Geo Quiz takes us to North Africa: We’re looking for the largest country on the shores of the Mediterranean. This country is also the second largest in Africa.

It’s neighbors range from Tunisia in the northeast, to Mali in the southwest. The country was once part of the Ottoman Empire. Later it came under French colonial rule. French is still widely spoken here but the country’s official national languages include Arabic and Berber.

Here’s another clue: this country’s national soccer team is nicknamed Les Fennecs. That means the Desert Foxes. The Desert in this case lies in the southern part of the country, it’s the vast Sahara Desert.

Geo Answer:

and the North African country we’re looking for is Algeria. The BBC’s Chloe Arnold tells anchor Lisa Mullins the “Our Lady of Africa” cathedral in the capital Algiers, is seen as a symbol of religious tolerance in Algeria.

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Notre Dame d'Afrique (Photo: Mehni Malik)

Discussion

One comment for “Second largest country in Africa”

  • bledhadjout

    I really listen to your show everyday on NPR and I like it as it shows the mosaic of the world. While we appreciate that you mentioned that you recognized that Algeria is a tolerant country, I believe it was necessary to mention in your short documentary that the government funded the operation of renovation of the Basilica Notre-Dame-d’Afrique, located on the heights of Algiers rather than other sources as it was said in your narration. For your information, there is no tolerant country like Algeria and we never had any problem or issues with any other religion. We love all religions of the world and respect them. In fact, the inauguration ceremony was attended by Abdelaziz Belkhadem Minister of State, Personal Representative of the Head of State and Minister of Religious Affairs and Wakfs Bouabdallah Ghlamallah, Prefect of Algiers Mohamed Kebir Addou, CEO of Sonelgaz Noureddine Bouterfa, Archbishop of Algiers Ghaleb Bader, and Head of the European Union Delegation in Algiers Laura Baeza. None of these people were mentioned in your documentary and I wonder why. Also, the restoration of the basilica will be, according to the Prefect of Algiers, an example for similar operations for other sites and historical monuments in Algeria. For the archbishop of Algiers, Notre-Dame-d’Afrique aims at being “first of all a place open to everyone, whose principles are based on mutual respe! ct and shared solidarity.” “The world is often confronted with individualism. The man needed to find havens of peace and dialogue spaces. Notre-Dame-d’Afrique must be part of those high places where man can be reconciled with himself first, then with humans and with God,” he said. Thank you!