Which country has the largest land area in Africa?

Algeria has the largest land area of any country in Africa. Covering about 2,381,741 square kilometres, it is also the tenth-largest country in the world.

Most of Algeria lies in North Africa’s Sahara, which occupies more than four-fifths of the country. The northern region contains the Mediterranean coast, the Tell Atlas and the High Plateaus, while the vast southern territory includes desert landscapes, rocky massifs and important oases.

Algeria became Africa’s largest country in 2011, when South Sudan became independent from Sudan. Before that, Sudan held the continental area record. This change is why older quiz books and maps may give Sudan as the answer.

Algeria borders Tunisia and Libya to the northeast and east, Niger to the southeast, Mali and Mauritania to the southwest, and Morocco and Western Sahara to the west. Its capital, Algiers, sits on the Mediterranean coast. Libya and Sudan are both enormous African countries, but each has a smaller total land area than Algeria.