There are two northernmost national capital cities in Africa with the latitude difference of only three angular minutes, which is around 5.5 kilometers.
The northernmost national capitals in Africa are the following:
- Tunis, the capital of Tunisia.
- Algiers, the capital of Algeria.
- Rabat, the capital of Morocco.
The first two are large cities and the latitude depends on where you put the center. It is therefore not so simple to say which of them is more to the north.
The location on the map of these three cities is shown below. The map is zoomable so you can see details.
Tunis
According to Wikipedia, the latitude of this capital of Tunisia is 36°48′23″N. But if you zoom into it in the map above, you will realize this is a huge city. It covers more than 100 square kilometers, and this is a multi-million city.
Tunis (the top picture above) started as a Berber settlement in the 4th century BC. This place has been on the way to Carthage and its history is closely related to Carthage. Tunis was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC during the Third Punic War and the same was with Carthage.
But Tunis survived and it was rebuilt. It was Romanized and later Christianized, and since the 7th century this is a Muslim city.
Here is a video about the city, please have a look:
Algiers
The latitude of Algiers is 36°45′14″N, so now you see that it is only around 3 angular minutes less to the north than Tunis. This would mean around 5.5 km.
But the city is huge, see the picture above which is from Wikimedia Commons, and check also the map given above. Its area is around 400 square kilometers. Now, go figure where its true center is and what its exact latitude is.
This is the largest city in Algeria with around 5 million people. The old part of the city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The area of what is now Algiers was also a part of the Carthage and it shared its destiny regarding Romans who took it over and called Icosium. Later, the city was taken by Muslims.
Algiers as a city was founded in 944 by Bologhine ibn Ziri, the founder of the Berber Zirid dynasty. Please see more about Algiers in this video:
I mentioned Rabat, the capital of Morocco, so its latitude is 34°02’N and it is obviously considerably more to the south than the other two cities described above.
Note also that the two southernmost capital cities in Europe are more to the south than the top two northernmost African cities. Even some big cities in the continental Spain, like Malaga, Marbella, and Cadiz are more to the south than Tunis and Algiers. The same holds for Gibraltar.
Thank you for reading. You might want to bookmark this site as keep as a reference, it is all about capitals in the world. Let me know if you have questions or comments, there is a comment box below.