Tunisia

Tunisia (Arabic: تونس‎ Tūnis), officially the Tunisian Republic (الجمهورية التونسية‎ al-Jumhūriyya at-Tūnisiyya), is a country located in North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast. It is also located southwest of the island of Sicily and south of Sardinia. Its size is almost 165,000 km² with an estimated population of just over 10,300,000. Its capital is Tunis. It is the northernmost country on the African continent, and the smallest of the nations situated along the Atlas mountain range. Around forty percent of the country is composed of the Sahara desert, with much of the remainder consisting of particularly fertile soil and a 1300 km coastline. Both played a prominent role in ancient times, first with the famous Phoenician city of Carthage, then as the Africa Province which became known as the bread basket of the Roman Empire, and then as the Maghreb region of various medieval Islamic states. Tunisia ranks high among Arab and African nations in reports released by The World Economic Forum.