Tunisia, officially the Tunisian Republic, is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area is almost 165000km2, with an estimated population of just over 10.4 million. Its name is derived from the capital Tunis located in the north-east.
Tunisia is the smallest of the nations situated along the Atlas Mountains. The south of the country is composed of the Sahara desert, with much of the remainder consisting of particularly fertile soil and 1300km (800miles) of coastline. Both played a prominent role in ancient times, first with the famous Phoenician city of Carthage, then as the Roman province of Africa, which was known as the "bread basket" of Rome. In modern times, starting in December 2010, Tunisia was the initial location of the Arab Spring, which spread in a revolutionary wave to Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Djibouti, Iran, Yemen and Syria by April 2011.
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