Tunisia is a country in North Africa, with Algeria on its west side and Libya on its east, and the Mediterranean Sea along the top. It is small compared with its neighbours — about ten to twelve million people — and the shape of life there follows the land: the north is green, with farms, olive trees and the coast where nearly everyone lives; the south runs into the Sahara desert, sand and almost empty. The capital is Tunis. Arabic is the official language, French is widely used from the years of French rule, and most people are Muslim. Two things you may already know it for. Beach holidays — Europeans go there the way people here go to Okinawa. And history: in 2010 to 2011 a protest in Tunisia grew into a revolution that removed the president, and that event set off the wave of uprisings across the Arab world that news reports called the Arab Spring. Capital letter, no 'the', like most country names: 'she lives in Tunisia'.