north Africa

File:Algeria Sahara Desert Photo From Drone 5.jpg in the Algerian Sahara]]

File:Djebel Toubkal 01.jpg in Morocco]]

North Africa has three main geographic features: the Sahara desert in the south, the Atlas Mountains in the west, and the Nile River and delta in the east. The Atlas Mountains extend across much of northern Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. These mountains are part of the fold mountain system that also runs through much of Southern Europe. They recede to the south and east, becoming a steppe landscape before meeting the Sahara desert, which covers more than 75 percent of the region. The tallest peaks are in the High Atlas range in south-central Morocco, which has many snow-capped peaks.

South of the Atlas Mountains is the dry and barren expanse of the Sahara desert, the largest sand desert in the world.{{cite web|url=http://geology.com/records/largest-desert.shtml|title=Largest Desert in the World|access-date=30 December 2011}} In places the desert is cut by irregular watercourses called wadis—streams that flow only after rainfall but are usually dry. The Sahara's major landforms include ergs, large seas of sand that sometimes form into huge dunes; the hammada, a level rocky plateau without soil or sand; and the reg, a desert pavement. The Sahara covers the southern part of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, and most of Libya. Only two regions of Libya are outside the desert: Tripolitania in the northwest and Cyrenaica in the northeast. Most of Egypt is also desert, with the exception of the Nile River and the irrigated land along its banks. The Nile Valley forms a narrow fertile thread that runs along the length of the country.

Sheltered valleys in the Atlas Mountains, the Nile Valley and Delta, and the Mediterranean coast are the main sources of fertile farming land. A wide variety of valuable crops including cereals, rice and cotton, and woods such as cedar and cork, are grown. Typical Mediterranean crops, such as olives, figs, dates and citrus fruits, also thrive in these areas. The Nile Valley is particularly fertile and most of Egypt lives close to the river. Elsewhere, irrigation is essential to improve crop yields on the desert margins.

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{{Main|North African Arabs|Arabs|Egyptians|Nubians|Maghrebis|Berbers|Haratins}}

{{Further|Demographics of Africa|Demographics of the Middle East and North Africa|List of ethnic groups of Africa#North Africa|List of African countries by population|Writing systems of Africa#Ancient orthographies}}

File:Beduin women.jpg women in Tunisia in 1922]]

{{See also|Ethnic groups in Algeria}}

The inhabitants of North Africa are roughly divided in a manner corresponding to the principal geographic regions of North Africa: the Maghreb, the Nile valley, and the Sahel. The countries making up North Africa all have Modern Standard Arabic as their official language. Additionally, Algeria and Morocco recognize Berber as a second official language after Arabic. French also serves as an administrative language in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The most spoken dialects are Maghrebi Arabic, a form of ancient Arabic dating back from the 8th century AD, and Egyptian Arabic. The largest and most numerous ethnic group in North Africa are the Arabs.{{Cite book |editor=The Diagram Group |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xJQuAgAAQBAJ&q=Numbering+over+100+million%2C+Arabs+are+the+most+numerous+ethnic+group+in+North+Africa. |title=Encyclopedia of African Peoples |date=26 November 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-96341-5 |language=en}} In Algeria and Morocco, Berbers are the second largest ethnic group after the Arab majority. Arabs constitute 70%{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3qBm4-HivM0C&pg=PA8 |title=The Report: Algeria 2007 |date=2007 |publisher=Oxford Business Group |isbn=978-1-902339-70-2 |language=en |access-date=30 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410070904/https://books.google.com/books?id=3qBm4-HivM0C&pg=PA8 |archive-date=10 April 2023 |url-status=live}} to 80%{{Cite book |last=Laaredj-Campbell |first=Anne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C7UvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA31 |title=Changing Female Literacy Practices in Algeria: Empirical Study on Cultural Construction of Gender and Empowerment |date=10 December 2015 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-658-11633-0 |language=en |access-date=30 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164800/https://books.google.com/books?id=C7UvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA31 |archive-date=26 March 2023 |url-status=live}} of the population of Algeria, 92%{{Cite book |last=Yakan |first=Mohamad |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e_hADwAAQBAJ&pg=PT62 |title=Almanac of African Peoples and Nations |date=30 November 2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-28930-6 |language=en}} 97%{{Cite book |last1=Malcolm |first1=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_l87ixBRpKIC&pg=PA62 |title=Libya |last2=Losleben |first2=Elizabeth |date=2004 |publisher=Marshall Cavendish |isbn=978-0-7614-1702-6 |language=en |access-date=30 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410070902/https://books.google.com/books?id=_l87ixBRpKIC&pg=PA62 |archive-date=10 April 2023 |url-status=live}} of Libya, 67%{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fs0Fog7XneUC&pg=PA11 |title=The Report: Morocco 2012 |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford Business Group |isbn=978-1-907065-54-5 |language=en |access-date=30 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307021801/https://books.google.com/books?id=fs0Fog7XneUC&pg=PA11 |archive-date=7 March 2023 |url-status=live}} to 70%{{Cite book |last1=Son |first1=George Philip & |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8UD0kOEb1XIC&pg=PA161 |title=Encyclopedic World Atlas |last2=Press |first2=Oxford University |date=26 December 2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=978-0-19-521920-3 |language=en}} of Morocco and 98%{{Citation |title=Tunisia |date=2 December 2022 |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/tunisia/ |work=The World Factbook |access-date=12 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210110024851/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/tunisia/ |url-status=live |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency |language=en |archive-date=10 January 2021}} of Tunisia's population. The Berbers comprise 20% of Algeria, 10%{{Cite web |last=Zurutuza |first=Karlos |title=Berbers fear ethnic conflict |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/1/6/libyas-berbers-fear-ethnic-conflict |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230129190339/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/1/6/libyas-berbers-fear-ethnic-conflict |archive-date=29 January 2023 |access-date=12 December 2022 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}} of Libya, 35%{{Cite book |last=Danver |first=Steven L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vf4TBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA23 |title=Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures and Contemporary Issues |date=10 March 2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-46400-6 |language=en |access-date=30 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315191149/https://books.google.com/books?id=vf4TBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA23 |archive-date=15 March 2023 |url-status=live}} of Morocco and 1%{{Cite news |date=12 March 2004 |title=Q&A: The Berbers |language=en-GB |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3509799.stm |url-status=live |access-date=12 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180112181804/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3509799.stm |archive-date=12 January 2018}} of Tunisia's population. The region is predominantly Muslim with a Jewish minority in Morocco and Tunisia,{{Cite book |last=Rosenberg |first=Jerry M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bdAdAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA44 |title=The Rebirth of the Middle East |date=28 September 2009 |publisher=Hamilton Books |isbn=978-0-7618-4846-2 |language=en}} and significant Christian minority—the Copts—in Egypt, Algeria,* {{in lang|fr}} [http://matoub.kabylie.free.fr/kabylie/article.php3?id_article=174 Sadek Lekdja, Christianity in Kabylie, Radio France Internationale, 7 mai 2001] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018134716/http://matoub.kabylie.free.fr/kabylie/article.php3?id_article=174|date=18 October 2017}}{{cite book |last=P S Rowe |first=Paul |title=Routledge Handbook of Minorities in the Middle East |publisher=Routledge |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-317-23379-4 |page=133 |quote=}} Morocco,{{cite web |title=Refworld – Morocco: General situation of Muslims who converted to Christianity, and specifically those who converted to Catholicism; their treatment by Islamists and the authorities, including state protection (2008–2011) |url=http://www.refworld.org/docid/4f4361e72.html |website=Refworld.org}} Libya,{{cite book |last1=Morgan |first1=Jason |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R65iYMCuK6gC |title=Culture and Customs of Libya |last2=Falola |first2=Toyin |last3=Oyeniyi |first3=Bukola Adeyemi |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-313-37860-7 |page=40}} and Tunisia.{{cite book |last=Fahlbusch |first=Erwin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ly4DgtT3LkC&pg=PA653 |title=The Encyclopedia of Christianity: J-O |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8028-2415-8}} In 2001, the number of Christians in North Africa was estimated at 9 million, the majority of whom live in Egypt, with the remainder live in Maghreb countries.{{cite book |last1=Juang |first1=Richard M. |title=Africa and the Americas [3 Volumes]: Culture, Politics, and History |last2=Morrissette |first2=Noelle |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-521-88952-0 |location=UK |pages=929–930}}{{cite book |last1=Juergensmeyer |first1=Mark |title=The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-976764-9 |location=Oxford |page=317}}

The inhabitants of the Spanish Canary Islands are of mixed Spanish and North African Berber ancestry, and the people of Malta are of primarily Southern Italian/Sicilian, as well as, to a lesser extent, North African and Middle Eastern ancestry{{cite book |url=http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20070805/opinion/genetic-origin-of-contemporary-maltese.9032 |title=Genetic Origin of Contemporary Maltese People |date=5 August 2007 |quote=Repopulation is likely to have occurred by a clan or clans (possibly of Arab or Arab-like speaking people) from neighbouring Sicily and Calabria. Possibly, they could have mixed with minute numbers of residual inhabitants, with a constant input of immigrants from neighbouring countries and later, even from afar. There seems to be little input from North Africa.}}Geoffrey Hull, The Malta Language Question: A Case Study in Cultural Imperialism, Valletta: Said International, 1993, pp. 317–330. Scientific etymologies of the longest-established Maltese family names are given in Geoffrey Hull, "The Oldest Maltese Surnames: A Window on Sicily's Medieval History", in Claudia Karagoz and Giovanna Summerfield (eds), Sicily and the Mediterranean: Migration, Exchange, Reinvention, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, pp. 78–108; "Late Medieval Maltese Surnames of Arabic and Greek Origin", Symposia Melitensia No. 11 (2015), pp. 129–143{{cite book |url=http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20070805/opinion/genetic-origin-of-contemporary-maltese.9032 |title=Genetic Origin of Contemporary Maltese People |date=5 August 2007 |quote=Together with colleagues from other institutions across the Mediterranean and in collaboration with the group led by David Goldstein at the University College, London, we have shown that the contemporary males of Malta most likely originated from Southern Italy, including Sicily and up to Calabria. There is a minuscule amount of input from the Eastern Mediterranean with genetic affinity to Christian Lebanon....We documented clustering of the Maltese markers with those of Sicilians and Calabrians. The study is published in the Annals of Human Genetics by C. Capelli, N. Redhead, N. Novelletto, L. Terrenato, P. Malaspina, Z. Poulli, G. Lefranc, A. Megarbane, V. Delague, V. Romano, F. Cali, V.F. Pascali, M. Fellous, A.E. Felice, and D.B. Goldstein; "Population Structure in the Mediterranean Basin; A Y Chromosome Perspective", AHG, 69, 1–20, 2005..}} and speak a derivative of Arabic. However, these areas are not generally considered part of North Africa, but rather Southern Europe, due to their proximity to mainland Europe and their European-based cultures and religion.

The Maghreb or western North Africa on the whole is believed to have been inhabited by Berbers and their ancestors since at least 10,000 B.C.,{{Cite book

| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0E8qp_k515oC

|title=Historical Dictionary of the Berbers (Imazighen)

|series=Historical Dictionaries of Peoples and Cultures

|page=112

|last=Ilahine | first=Hsain|year=2006

|publisher=Scarecrow Press

|isbn=0-8108-6490-8}} while the eastern part of North Africa or the Nile Valley has mainly been home to the Egyptians and Nubians. Ancient Egyptians record extensive contact in their Western desert with people that appear to have been Berber or proto-Berber. As the Tassili n'Ajjer and other rock art findings in the Sahara have shown, the Sahara also hosted various populations before its rapid desertification in 3500 B.C and even today continues to host small populations of nomadic trans-Saharan peoples. Laboratory examination of the Uan Muhuggiag child mummy and Tin Hanakaten child, suggested that the Central Saharan peoples from the Epipaleolithic, Mesolithic, and Pastoral periods possessed dark skin complexions.{{cite book |last1=Soukopova |first1=Jitka |title=Round Heads: The Earliest Rock Paintings in the Sahara |date=16 January 2013 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-4438-4579-3 |pages=19–24 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=07wwBwAAQBAJ&q=Tuareg&pg=PR5 |language=en}} The archaeological evidence from the Holocene period has shown that Nilo-Saharan speaking groups had populated the central and southern Sahara before the influx of Berber and Arabic speakers, around 1500 years ago, who now largely populate the Sahara in the modern era.{{cite journal |last1=Drake |first1=Nick A. |last2=Blench |first2=Roger M. |last3=Armitage |first3=Simon J. |last4=Bristow |first4=Charlie S. |last5=White |first5=Kevin H. |title=Ancient watercourses and biogeography of the Sahara explain the peopling of the desert |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |date=11 January 2011 |volume=108 |issue=2 |pages=458–462 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1012231108 |pmid=21187416 |pmc=3021035 |bibcode=2011PNAS..108..458D |issn=1091-6490|doi-access=free }}

File:Griechischen und phönizischen Kolonien.jpgn (in yellow) and Greek colonies (in red) about 8th to 6th century BC.]]

After migrating to North Africa in the 1st millennium BC, Semitic Phoenician settlers from the Levant established over 300 coastal colonies throughout the region and built a powerful empire that controlled most of the region from the 8th century BC until the middle of the 2nd century BC.{{Cite book |last=Woolmer |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lbmKDwAAQBAJ&dq=300+colonies+phoenician+strabo&pg=PA201 |title=A Short History of the Phoenicians |date=30 April 2017 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-78672-217-1 |pages=201 |language=en}}

Several waves of Arab migrations to the Maghreb began in the 7th century, including the migration of the Banu Hilal and the Banu Sulaym westward into the Maghreb in the eleventh century, which introduced Arab culture and language to the countryside. Historians mark their movement as a critical moment in the Arabization of North Africa.{{cite book|author1=Anthony Appiah|author2=Henry Louis Gates|title=Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TMZMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA360|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-517055-9|page=360}} As Arab nomads spread, the territories of the local Berber tribes were moved and shrank. The Zenata were pushed to the west and the Kabyles were pushed to the north. The Berbers took refuge in the mountains whereas the plains were Arabized.{{Cite book |last1=Farida |first1=Benouis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kmaWEAAAQBAJ |title=An Architecture of Light. Islamic Art in Algeria. |last2=Houria |first2=Chérid |last3=Lakhdar |first3=Drias |last4=Amine |first4=Semar |date=30 August 2022 |publisher=Museum With No Frontiers, MWNF (Museum Ohne Grenzen) |isbn=978-3-902966-14-8 |page=9 |language=en}} This heavily shifted the demographics of the Maghreb.

The trans-Saharan slave trade resulted in increased levels of sub-Saharan African ancestry in North Africa.{{cite news |title=Understanding the genomic heterogeneity of North African Imazighen: from broad to microgeographical perspectives |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-60568-8 |work=Scientific Reports |date=1 May 2024}} The Haratin are commonly perceived as an endogamous group of former slaves or descendants of slaves.{{cite book |author1=Anthony Appiah |author2=Henry Louis Gates |title=Encyclopedia of Africa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A0XNvklcqbwC&pg=PA549 |year=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-533770-9 |page=549}}, Quote: "Haratine. Social caste in several northwestern African countries consisting of blacks, many of whom are former slaves (...)"

{{See also|Genetic history of North Africa}}

DNA studies of Iberomaurusian peoples at Taforalt, Morocco dating to around 15,000 years ago have found them to have a distinctive Maghrebi ancestry formed from a mixture of Near Eastern and African ancestry, which is still found as a part of the genome of modern Northwest Africans.{{Cite journal |last1=van de Loosdrecht |first1=Marieke |last2=Bouzouggar |first2=Abdeljalil |last3=Humphrey |first3=Louise |last4=Posth |first4=Cosimo |last5=Barton |first5=Nick |last6=Aximu-Petri |first6=Ayinuer |last7=Nickel |first7=Birgit |last8=Nagel |first8=Sarah |last9=Talbi |first9=El Hassan |last10=El Hajraoui |first10=Mohammed Abdeljalil |last11=Amzazi |first11=Saaïd |last12=Hublin |first12=Jean-Jacques |last13=Pääbo |first13=Svante |last14=Schiffels |first14=Stephan |last15=Meyer |first15=Matthias |date=4 May 2018 |title=Pleistocene North African genomes link Near Eastern and sub-Saharan African human populations |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aar8380 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=360 |issue=6388 |pages=548–552 |doi=10.1126/science.aar8380 |pmid=29545507 |bibcode=2018Sci...360..548V |issn=0036-8075}} A 2025 study sequenced individuals from Takarkori (7,000 YBP) and discovered that most of their ancestry was from an unknown ancestral North African lineage, related to the African admixture component found in Iberomaurusians.{{Cite journal |last=Salem |first=Nada |last2=van de Loosdrecht |first2=Marieke S. |last3=Sümer |first3=Arev Pelin |last4=Vai |first4=Stefania |last5=Hübner |first5=Alexander |last6=Peter |first6=Benjamin |last7=Bianco |first7=Raffaela A. |last8=Lari |first8=Martina |last9=Modi |first9=Alessandra |last10=Al-Faloos |first10=Mohamed Faraj Mohamed |last11=Turjman |first11=Mustafa |last12=Bouzouggar |first12=Abdeljalil |last13=Tafuri |first13=Mary Anne |last14=Manzi |first14=Giorgio |last15=Rotunno |first15=Rocco |date=2 April 2025 |title=Ancient DNA from the Green Sahara reveals ancestral North African lineage |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08793-7 |journal=Nature |language=en |pages=1–7 |doi=10.1038/s41586-025-08793-7 |issn=1476-4687|doi-access=free }} According to the study, the Takarkori people were distinct from both contemporary sub-Saharan Africans and non-Africans/Eurasians. They had "only a minor component of non-African ancestry" but did "not carry sub-Saharan African ancestry, suggesting that, contrary to previous interpretations, the Green Sahara was not a corridor connecting Northern and sub-Saharan Africa."Reuters. [https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/sahara-desert-once-lush-green-was-home-mysterious-human-lineage-2025-04-04/ Sahara desert, once lush and green, was home to mysterious human lineage]. 5 February 2025

Later during the Neolithic, from around 7,500 years ago onwards, there was a migration into Northwest Africa of European Neolithic Farmers from the Iberian Peninsula (who had originated in Anatolia several thousand years prior), as well as pastoralists from the Levant, both of whom also significantly contributed to the ancestry of modern Northwest Africans.{{Cite journal |last1=Simões |first1=Luciana G. |last2=Günther |first2=Torsten |last3=Martínez-Sánchez |first3=Rafael M. |last4=Vera-Rodríguez |first4=Juan Carlos |last5=Iriarte |first5=Eneko |last6=Rodríguez-Varela |first6=Ricardo |last7=Bokbot |first7=Youssef |last8=Valdiosera |first8=Cristina |last9=Jakobsson |first9=Mattias |date=15 June 2023 |title=Northwest African Neolithic initiated by migrants from Iberia and Levant |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=618 |issue=7965 |pages=550–556 |doi=10.1038/s41586-023-06166-6 |issn=0028-0836 |pmc=10266975 |pmid=37286608|bibcode=2023Natur.618..550S }} The proto-Berber tribes evolved from these prehistoric communities during the late Bronze- and early Iron ages.Mário Curtis Giordani, História da África. Anterior aos descobrimentos. Editora Vozes, Petrópolis (Brasil) 1985, pp. 42f., 77f. Giordani references Bousquet, Les Berbères (Paris 1961).

{{Main|Culture of North Africa}}

{{Further|African art#North Africa|Architecture of Africa#North Africa|Folk costume#Northern Africa|African cuisine#North Africa|List of African cuisines#Central African cuisine|Music of Africa#North Africa and the Horn of Africa|Cinema of Africa#North Africa|History of theatre#North African theatre|Traditional African religions#North Africa}}

File:Biskra market 1899.jpg in Algeria in 1899]]

File:Flickr - stringer bel - Ait Benhaddou.jpg of Aït Benhaddou in Morocco]]

The majority of the people of the Maghreb and the Sahara regions speak varieties of Arabic and almost exclusively follow Islam. The Arabic and Berber languages are distantly related, both being members of the Afroasiatic language family. The Tuareg Berber languages are notably more conservative{{Clarification needed|reason=What is the meaning of conservative in this context?|date=September 2023}} than those of the coastal cities.

Over the years, Berbers have been influenced by contact with other cultures: Egyptians, Greeks, Punic people, Romans, Vandals, Arabs, Europeans, and Africans. The cultures of the Maghreb and the Sahara therefore combines Arab, indigenous Berber and African elements. In the Sahara, the distinction between sedentary oasis inhabitants and nomadic Bedouin Arabs and Tuaregs is particularly marked.

Egyptians over the centuries have shifted their language from Egyptian (in its late form, varieties of Coptic) to modern Egyptian Arabic while retaining a sense of national identity that has historically set them apart from other people in the region. Most Egyptians are Sunni Muslim, although there is a significant minority of Coptic Christians. The Copts are the largest Christian denomination in the Middle East and North Africa.{{cite web |title=Who are Egypt's Coptic Christians? |date=10 April 2017 |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/09/middleeast/egypt-coptic-christians/index.html |publisher=CNN |quote=The largest Christian community in the Middle East, Coptic Christians make up the majority of Egypt's roughly 9 million Christians. About 1 million more Coptic Christians are spread across Africa, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, according to the World Council of Churches.}}

The Maghreb formerly had a significant Jewish population, almost all of whom emigrated to France or Israel when the North African nations gained independence. Prior to the modern establishment of Israel, there were about 500,000 Jews in Northern Africa,{{Cite web|title=Jews of the Maghreb on the eve of World War II|url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jews-of-the-maghreb-on-the-eve-of-world-war-ii|access-date=18 February 2022|website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org|language=en}} including both Sephardi Jews (refugees from Spain, France and Portugal from the Renaissance era) as well as indigenous Mizrahi Jews. Today, less than 3,000 remain in the region, almost all in Morocco and Tunisia,{{Cite book|last=Rosenberg|first=Jerry M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bdAdAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA44|title=The Rebirth of the Middle East|date=28 September 2009|publisher=Hamilton Books|isbn=978-0-7618-4846-2|language=en}} and are mostly part of a French-speaking urban elite. (See Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries.)

{{Main|History of North Africa}}

{{Further|African empires#North Africa|List of kingdoms in pre-colonial Africa#North Africa}}

{{Main|Prehistoric North Africa}}

{{Further|History of North Africa#Prehistory}}

File:Journal.pone.0076514.g004.png (top), between about 12,000 and 7,000 years ago, and Eemian (bottom)]]

Due to the recent African origin of modern humans, the history of Prehistoric North Africa is important to the understanding of pre-hominid and early modern human history in Africa.

Some researchers have postulated that North Africa rather than East Africa served as the exit point for the modern humans who first trekked out of the continent in the Out of Africa migration.{{Cite journal |doi=10.1126/science.331.6013.20|pmid=21212332|title=Was North Africa the Launch Pad for Modern Human Migrations?|journal=Science|volume=331|issue=6013|pages=20–23|date=7 January 2011|last1=Balter|first1=Michael|bibcode=2011Sci...331...20B}}{{Cite journal | url= | doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2011.05.002| pmid=21601174| pmc=3113241| title=A Revised Root for the Human y Chromosomal Phylogenetic Tree: The Origin of Patrilineal Diversity in Africa| journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics| volume=88| issue=6| pages=814–818| year=2011| last1=Cruciani| first1=Fulvio| last2=Trombetta| first2=Beniamino| last3=Massaia| first3=Andrea| last4=Destro-Bisol| first4=Giovanni| last5=Sellitto| first5=Daniele| last6=Scozzari| first6=Rosaria}}{{Cite journal |doi=10.1073/pnas.0700747104|pmid=17372199|pmc=1828706|title=Earliest evidence of modern human life history in North African early Homo sapiens|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=104|issue=15|pages=6128–6133|date=10 April 2007|last1=Hublin|first1=Jean-Jacques|last2=Boutakiout|first2=Mohamed|last3=Eggins|first3=Stephen|last4=Grün|first4=Rainer|last5=Reid|first5=Donald J.|last6=Tafforeau|first6=Paul|last7=Smith|first7=Tanya M.|bibcode=2007PNAS..104.6128S|doi-access=free}}

The earliest inhabitants of central North Africa have left behind significant remains: early remnants of hominid occupation in North Africa, for example, were found in Ain-Hnech in Setif dating back 2.6 million years,{{Cite web |title=1.9 million and 2.4 million-year-old artefacts and stone tool cutmarked bones from Ain Boucherit, Algeria {{!}} Iphes |url=https://www.iphes.cat/19-million-and-24-million-year-old-artefacts-and-stone-tool-cutmarked-bones-ain-boucherit-algeria |access-date=23 February 2025 |website=www.iphes.cat}} near Saïda ({{Circa|200,000 BCE}}); in fact, more recent investigations have found signs of Oldowan technology there, and indicate a date of up to 1.8 million BCE.{{cite web|url=http://www.gi.ulpgc.es/tarha/Ain_Hanech.pdf|title=Sahnouni 1998|website=Gi.ulpc.es|access-date=10 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510140017/http://www.gi.ulpgc.es/tarha/Ain_Hanech.pdf|archive-date=10 May 2013}}{{Cite web |title=1.9 million and 2.4 million-year-old artefacts and stone tool cutmarked bones from Ain Boucherit, Algeria {{!}} Iphes |url=https://www.iphes.cat/19-million-and-24-million-year-old-artefacts-and-stone-tool-cutmarked-bones-ain-boucherit-algeria |access-date=23 February 2025 |website=www.iphes.cat}}

Recent finds in Jebel Irhoud in Morocco have been found to contain some of the oldest Homo sapiens remains; This suggests that, rather than arising only in East Africa around 200,000 years ago, early Homo sapiens may already have been present across the length of Africa 100,000 years earlier. According to study author Jean-Jacques Hublin, "The idea is that early Homo sapiens dispersed around the continent and elements of human modernity appeared in different places, and so different parts of Africa contributed to the emergence of what we call modern humans today."{{cite news|agency=Associated Press|title=Eritrea's human rights record comes under fire at United Nations|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/25/eritrea-human-rights-united-nations|access-date=30 October 2013|newspaper=The Guardian|date=25 October 2013}} Early humans may have comprised a large, interbreeding population dispersed across Africa whose spread was facilitated by a wetter climate that created a "green Sahara", around 330,000 to 300,000 years ago. The rise of modern humans may thus have taken place on a continental scale rather than being confined to a particular corner of Africa.{{cite news|url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.356.6342.993|title=World's oldest Homo sapiens fossils found in Morocco|last=Gibbons|first=Ann|work=Science|date=7 June 2017|doi=10.1126/science.356.6342.993 |access-date=8 June 2017}}

In September 2019, scientists reported the computerized determination, based on 260 CT scans, of a virtual skull shape of the last common human ancestor to modern humans/H. sapiens, representative of the earliest modern humans, and suggested that modern humans arose between 260,000 and 350,000 years ago through a merging of populations in East and Southern Africa.{{cite news |last=Zimmer |first=Carl |author-link=Carl Zimmer |title=Scientists Find the Skull of Humanity's Ancestor — on a Computer – By comparing fossils and CT scans, researchers say they have reconstructed the skull of the last common forebear of modern humans. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/science/human-ancestor-skull-computer.html |date=10 September 2019 |work=The New York Times |access-date=10 September 2019 }}{{cite journal |last1=Mounier |first1=Aurélien |last2=Lahr |first2=Marta |title=Deciphering African late middle Pleistocene hominin diversity and the origin of our species |journal=Nature Communications |year=2019 |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=3406 |doi=10.1038/s41467-019-11213-w |pmid=31506422 |pmc=6736881 |bibcode=2019NatCo..10.3406M }}

The cave paintings found at Tassili n'Ajjer, north of Tamanrasset, Algeria, and at other locations depict vibrant and vivid scenes of everyday life in central North Africa during the Neolithic Subpluvial period (about 8000 to 4000 BCE). Some parts of North Africa began to participate in the Neolithic revolution in the 6th millennium BCE, just before the rapid desertification of the Sahara around 3500 B.C. largely due to a tilt in the Earth's orbit.{{cite web|url=https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/green-sahara-african-humid-periods-paced-by-82884405/|title=Green Sahara: African humid periods paced by Earth's orbital changes|date=12 July 1999|website=Science Daily|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029191042/https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/07/990712080500.htm|archive-date=29 October 2013}} It was during this period that domesticated plants and animals were introduced in the region, spreading from the north and east to the southwest.{{Cite journal|last=Kuper|first=Rudolf|title=Climate-Controlled Holocene Occupation in the Sahara: Motor of Africa's Evolution|journal=Science|year=2006|volume=313|issue=5788|pages=803–708|doi=10.1126/science.1130989|pmid=16857900|bibcode=2006Sci...313..803K|s2cid=20003260|doi-access=free}} There has been an inferred connection between areas of rapid drying and the introduction of livestock in which the natural (orbital) aridification was amplified by the spread of shrubs and open land due to grazing.{{Cite journal|last=Wright|first=David|title=Humans as Agents in the Termination of the African Humid Period|journal=Frontiers in Earth Science|year=2017|volume=5|pages=https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2017.00004|doi=10.3389/feart.2017.00004|bibcode=2017FrEaS...5....4W|doi-access=free}} Nevertheless, changes in northern Africa's ecology after 3500 BCE provided the backdrop for the formation of dynastic civilizations and the construction of monumental architecture such as the Pyramids of Giza.{{Cite journal|last=Gatto|first=Maria|title=Holocene supra-regional environmental changes as trigger for major socio-cultural processes in northeastern Africa and the Sahara|journal=African Archaeological Review|year=2015|volume=32|issue=2|pages=301–333|doi=10.1007/s10437-015-9191-x|s2cid=126834892}}

File:All_Gizah_Pyramids.jpg are among the most recognizable symbols of ancient Egyptian civilization.]]

Archaeological evidence has attested that population settlements occurred in Nubia as early as the Late Pleistocene era and from the 5th millennium BC onwards, whereas there is "no or scanty evidence" of human presence in the Egyptian Nile Valley during these periods, which may be due to problems in site preservation.{{cite web |last1=Gatto |first1=Maria C. |title=The Nubian Pastoral Culture as Link between Egypt and Africa: A View from the Archaeological Record |url=https://www.academia.edu/545582}} Several scholars have argued that the African origins of the Egyptian civilisation derived from pastoral communities which emerged in both the Egyptian and Sudanese regions of the Nile Valley in the fifth millennium BCE.{{cite journal |last1=Wengrow |first1=David |last2=Dee |first2=Michael |last3=Foster |first3=Sarah |last4=Stevenson |first4=Alice |last5=Ramsey |first5=Christopher Bronk |title=Cultural convergence in the Neolithic of the Nile Valley: a prehistoric perspective on Egypt's place in Africa |journal=Antiquity |date=March 2014 |volume=88 |issue=339 |pages=95–111 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00050249 |s2cid=49229774 |language=en |issn=0003-598X|doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Stuart Tyson |title=Gift of the Nile? Climate Change, the Origins of Egyptian Civilization and Its Interactions within Northeast Africa |journal=Across the Mediterranean – Along the Nile: Studies in Egyptology, Nubiology and Late Antiquity Dedicated to László Török. Budapest |date=1 January 2018 |pages=325–345 |url=https://www.academia.edu/43275151}}

When Egypt entered the Bronze Age,{{Cite book|url=https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935413.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199935413-e-35|title=Egypt and the Mediterranean in the Bronze Age: The Archaeological Evidence|last=Bader|first=Bettina|year=2015|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935413.013.35|isbn=978-0-19-993541-3}} the Maghreb remained focused on small-scale subsistence in small, highly mobile groups.{{cite book|last=Barker|first=Graema|chapter=Agriculture, Pastoralism, and Mediterranean Landscapes in Prehistory|title=The Archaeology of Mediterranean Prehistory|year=2005|pages=46–76|doi=10.1002/9780470773536.ch3|isbn=978-0-470-77353-6}} Some Phoenician and Greek colonies were established along the Mediterranean coast during the 7th century BCE.

{{Main|History of North Africa#Classical period}}

File:Roman provincial languages 150CE.png {{circa|150 AD}}]]

File:Septimius Severus Glyptothek Munich 357.jpg, the first Roman emperor native to North Africa, born in Leptis Magna in present-day Libya]]

The most notable nations of antiquity in western North Africa are Carthage, Numidia and Mauretania. The Phoenicians colonized much of North Africa including Carthage and parts of present-day Morocco (including Chellah, Essaouira and Volubilis{{cite web|author=C. Michael Hogan |url=http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=14906 |title=Volubilis – Ancient Village or Settlement in Morocco |publisher=The Megalithic Portal |date=18 December 2007 |access-date=23 May 2010}}). The Carthaginians were of Phoenician origin, with the Roman myth of their origin being that Dido, a Phoenician princess, was granted land by a local ruler based on how much land she could cover with a piece of cowhide. She ingeniously devised a method to extend the cowhide to a high proportion, thus gaining a large territory. She was also rejected by the Trojan prince Aeneas according to Virgil, thus creating a historical enmity between Carthage and Rome, as Aeneas would eventually lay the foundations for Rome. The Carthaginian Empire was a commercial power and had a strong navy, but relied on mercenaries for land soldiers. The Carthaginians developed an empire in the Iberian Peninsula, Malta, Sardinia, Corsica and northwest Sicily, the latter being the cause of First Punic War with the Romans.

Over a hundred years and more, all Carthaginian territory was eventually conquered by the Romans, resulting in the Carthaginian North African territories becoming the Roman province of Africa in 146 B.C.{{cite book|title =The Punic Wars 264–146 BC|first= Nigel|last= Bagnall|publisher = Osprey|date = 2002|isbn =9781472895530}} This led to tension and eventually conflict between Numidia and Rome. The Numidian wars are notable for launching the careers of both Gaius Marius, and Sulla, and stretching the constitutional burden of the Roman republic as Marius required a professional army, something previously contrary to Roman values, to overcome the talented military leader Jugurtha.Sallust, De Bello Iugurthino Kingdom of Mauretania remained independent until being annexed to the Roman Empire by Emperor Claudius in 42 AD.

North Africa remained a part of the Roman Empire, producing notable citizens, including Augustine of Hippo, until incompetent leadership from Roman commanders in the early fifth century allowed the Germanic peoples, the Vandals, to cross the Strait of Gibraltar, whereupon they overcame the fickle Roman defense. The loss of North Africa is considered a pinnacle point in the fall of the Western Roman Empire as Africa had previously been an important grain province that maintained Roman prosperity despite the barbarian incursions, and the wealth required to create new armies. The issue of regaining North Africa became paramount to the Western Empire, but was frustrated by Vandal victories. The focus of Roman energy had to be on the emerging threat of the Huns. In 468 AD, the Romans made one last serious attempt to invade North Africa but were repelled. This perhaps marks the point of terminal decline for the Western Roman Empire.

The last Roman emperor was deposed in 476 by the Heruli general Odoacer. Trade routes between Europe and North Africa remained intact until the coming of Islam. Some Berbers were members of the Early African Church (but evolved their own Donatist doctrine),{{Cite web|website=BBC World Service |series= The Story of Africa |title=The Berbers|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1624_story_of_africa/page66.shtml|access-date=8 February 2023|publisher=BBC}} some were Berber Jews, and some adhered to traditional Berber religion. African pope Victor I served during the reign of Roman emperor Septimius Severus. Furthermore, during the rule of the Romans, Byzantines, Vandals, Ottomans and Carthaginians the Kabyle people were the only or one of the few in North Africa who remained independent.{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4CfBKvsiWeQC&pg=PA156 | title = The Middle East and North Africa: Pg 156| isbn = 978-1-85743-132-2| author1 = Eur| publisher = Psychology Press}}{{cite web| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=83koAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA118 | title = Sketches of Algeria During the Kabyle War By Hugh Mulleneux Walmsley: Pg 118| last1 = Walmsley| first1 = Hugh Mulleneux| year = 1858}}{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wqF8CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT167 | title = The Kabyle People By Glora M. Wysner| isbn = 978-1-4474-8352-6| last1 = Wysner| first1 = Glora M.| date = 30 January 2013| publisher = Read Books}}{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pv80AQAAMAAJ&q=Kabylia | title = The Encyclopedia Americana, Volume 1: Pg 568| year = 1990| publisher = Grolier| isbn = 978-0-7172-0121-1}}

The Kabyle people were incredibly resistible so much so that even during the Arab conquest of North Africa they still had control and possession over their mountains.{{cite journal| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GI5CAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA45 | journal= The Art-Journal|location = London|volume= 4|page= 45| year = 1865|title = Kabyle Pottery|last = Bodichon}}{{cite web| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=JU5CAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA93 | title = The Barbary Coast By Henry Martyn Field: Pg 93| last1 = Field| first1 = Henry Martyn| year = 1893}}

{{Main|History of North Africa#Arrival of Islam}}

{{Further|Muslim conquest of the Maghreb|European enclaves in North Africa before 1830|Colonisation of Africa|Decolonisation of Africa|Postcolonial Africa#North Africa|Neocolonialism}}

{{See also|Status of forces agreement}}

File:Kairouan Mosque Courtyard.jpg in Tunisia, founded by Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi in 670, one of the oldest and most notable mosques in North Africa.{{cite book|last=Küng|first=Hans|author-link=Hans Küng|title=Tracing The Way: Spiritual Dimensions of the World Religions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sm0BfUKwct0C&pg=PA248|year=2006|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-8264-9423-8}}, page 248]]

The early Muslim conquests included North Africa by 640. By 700, most of North Africa had come under Muslim rule. Indigenous Berbers subsequently started to form their own polities in response in places such as Fez and Sijilmasa. In the eleventh century, a reformist movement made up of members that called themselves the Almoravid dynasty expanded south into Sub-Saharan Africa.

North Africa's populous and flourishing civilization collapsed after exhausting its resources in internal fighting and suffering devastation from the invasion of the Banu Sulaym and Banu Hilal. Ibn Khaldun noted that the lands ravaged by Banu Hilal invaders had become completely arid desert.[http://www.galtoninstitute.org.uk/Newsletters/GINL9603/PopCrises3.htm Populations Crises and Population Cycles] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527170154/http://www.galtoninstitute.org.uk/Newsletters/GINL9603/PopCrises3.htm |date=27 May 2013 }}, Claire Russell and W.M.S. Russell, Galton Institute, March 1996

File:Scramble-for-Africa-1880-1913-v2.png

After the Middle Ages much of the area was loosely under the control of the Ottoman Empire. The Barbary pirates operated from the largely independent Barbary states located on the coast of North Africa. The Spanish Empire conquered several coastal cities between the 16th and 18th centuries. After the 19th century, the imperial and colonial presence of France, the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy left the entirety of the region under one form of European occupation.

In World War II from 1940 to 1943 the area was the setting for the North African Campaign. During the 1950s and 1960s all of the North African states gained independence. There remains a dispute over Western Sahara between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front.

The wider protest movement known as the Arab Spring began with revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt which ultimately led to the overthrow of their governments, as well as civil war in Libya. Large protests also occurred in Algeria and Morocco to a lesser extent. Many hundreds died in the uprisings.{{cite news |url=http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/02/201122164254698620.html |title=In search of an African revolution |first=Azad |last=Essa |publisher=Al Jazeera |date=21 February 2011}}

Further information in the sections of Architecture of Africa:

• Prehistoric North African Architecture
• Ancient North African Architecture
• Medieval North African Architecture

Further information in the sections of History of science and technology in Africa:

{{Div col}}

• Education
• Astronomy
• Mathematics
• Metallurgy
• Medicine
• Agriculture
• Textiles
• Maritime technology
• Architecture
• Communication systems
• Warfare
• Commerce
• By country

{{Div col end}}

• Culture of Egypt
• Demographics of the Middle East and North Africa
• European Digital Archive on Soil Maps of the World
• List of modern conflicts in North Africa
• List of Roman Latin poets and writers from North Africa

{{Reflist}}

• Cesari, Jocelyne. The awakening of Muslim democracy: Religion, modernity, and the state (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
• Fischbach, ed. Michael R. Biographical encyclopedia of the modern Middle East and North Africa (Gale Group, 2008).
• Ilahiane, Hsain. Historical dictionary of the Berbers (Imazighen) (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017).
• Issawi, Charles. An economic history of the Middle East and North Africa (Routledge, 2013).
• Naylor, Phillip C. North Africa, Revised Edition: A History from Antiquity to the Present (University of Texas Press, 2015).
• Willie Molesi, Black Africa versus Arab North Africa: The Great Divide, {{ISBN|979-8332308994}}
• Willie Molesi, Relations Between Africans and Arabs: Harsh Realities,{{ISBN|979-8334767546}}

{{commons category multi|Northern Africa|North Africa}}

• {{usurped|1=[https://archive.today/20121220115001/http://www.amazighworld.org/ Human Rights for Indigenous Peoples]}}
• [http://www.takoumba.com North Africa's Weather Forecasts and Weather Conditions]
• [http://www.north-africa.com North Africa news and analysis]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100117005910/http://www.usaraf.army.mil/MAP_INTERACTIVE/INTERACTIVE_MAP.swf Africa Interactive Map] from the United States Army Africa (archived 17 January 2010)

{{Countries and territories of North Africa}}

{{Regions of Africa}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Geography of North Africa

Category:Regions of Africa