Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is the smallest country in North Africa, It is a Maghreb country bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia is almost 165,000 square km (64,000 square miles) in area, with an estimated population of just under 10.7 million. Its name is derived from the capital Tunis located in the northeast. The south of the country is composed of the Sahara desert, with much of the remainder consisting of particularly fertile soil and 1,300 km (810 miles) of coastline.