North Africae or Northren Africae is the northmaist region o the African continent, linkit bi the Sahara tae Sub-Saharan Africae. Geopolitically, the Unitit Naitions definition o Northren Africae includes aicht kintras or territories; Algerie, Egyp, Libie, Morocco, Sooth Sudan, Sudan, Tunisie, an Wastren Sahara.[1] Algerie, Morocco, Tunisie, Mauritanie, an Libie thegither are an aw referred tae as the Maghreb or Maghrib, while Egyp is a transcontinental kintra bi virtue o the Sinai Peninsulae, which is in Asie. The ither notable pairt o North Africae is the territory o the Wastren Sudan. Three sma Spaingie plazas de soberanía – tiny islets wi military bases aff the coast o Morocco wi nae ceevilian population – are in the aurie, an the Spaingie Canary Islands an Portuguese Madeira Islands, in the North Atlantic Ocean northwast o the African mainland, are whiles includit in considerations o the region.
Mony scholars hae emphasized a destinction atween Northren Africae an the rest o Africae as historically an ecologically significant acause it haes been assertit the the Sahara desert haes made it sae that contact wi Sub-Saharan Africae wis limitit an that the culturs o North Africae became hintle mair closely teed tae Soothwastren Asie an Europe. Indeed, the modren Islamic influence in the aurie is significant, an North Africae, alang wi the Middle East, is a major pairt o the Arab Warld. Recent wirk in the field o Saharan studies an airchaeology housomeivver, are beginnin tae quaisten this paradigm, pairticularly wi respect tae historicizin the region.
Some researchers hae postulatit that North Africae, an no East or Sooth Africae, wis the oreeginal hame o the modren humans who first trekkit oot o the continent.[2][3][4]