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North Africa

North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of the Western Sahara in the west, to Egypt and Sudan's Red Sea coast in the east.[1]

"Northern Africa" redirects here. For the region of the United Nations, see United Nations geoscheme for Africa § Northern Africa. For the region of the African Union, see Regions of the African Union § North. For the western part of the Arab world, see Maghreb.

North Africa

Sovereign states (6)
Other territories (3)
Partially recognized states (1)

The most common definition for the region's boundaries includes Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and Western Sahara, the territory disputed between Morocco and the partially recognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. The United Nations' definition includes all these countries as well as the Sudan.[4] The African Union defines the region similarly, only differing from the UN in excluding the Sudan.[5] The Sahel, south of the Sahara Desert, can be considered as the southern boundary of North Africa.[6][7][8] North Africa includes the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla, and the plazas de soberanía. It can also be considered to include Malta, as well as other Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish regions such as Lampedusa and Lampione, the Azores and Madeira, and the Canary Islands, which are all closer or as close to the African continent than Europe.


Northwest Africa has been inhabited by Berbers since the beginning of recorded history, while the eastern part of North Africa has been home to the Egyptians.[9] In the seventh and eighth centuries, Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula swept across the region during the early Muslim conquests. The Arab migrations to the Maghreb began immediately after, shifting the demographic scope of North Africa in favor of the Arabs. Many but not all Berbers and Egyptians gradually merged into Arab-Islamic culture. These processes of Arabization and Islamization has defined the cultural landscape of North Africa ever since.


The countries and people of North Africa share a large amount of their genetic, ethnic, cultural and linguistic identity and influence with the Middle East, a process that began with the Neolithic Revolution c. 10,000 BC and pre Dynastic Egypt. The countries of North Africa are also a major part of the Arab world. The Islamic influence in North Africa is significant, with the region being major part of the Muslim world. North Africa is associated with the Middle East in the realm of geopolitics to form the Middle East-North Africa region.[10]

Prehistoric North African Architecture

Ancient North African Architecture

Medieval North African Architecture

Further information in the sections of Architecture of Africa:

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

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).

Human Rights for Indigenous Peoples

North Africa's Weather Forecasts and Weather Conditions

North Africa news and analysis

from the United States Army Africa (archived 17 January 2010)

Africa Interactive Map