Algieria - zabytki Listy Światowego Dziedzictwa UNESCO

In a mountainous site of extraordinary beauty, the ruins of the first capital of the Hammadid emirs, founded in 1007 and demolished in 1152, provide an authentic picture of a fortified Muslim city. The mosque, whose prayer room has 13 aisles with eight bays, is one of the largest in Algeria.

Situated 900 m above sea-level, Djémila, or Cuicul, with its forum, temples, basilicas, triumphal arches and houses, is an interesting example of Roman town planning adapted to a mountain location.

The Kasbah is a unique kind of medina, or Islamic city. It stands in one of the finest coastal sites on the Mediterranean, overlooking the islands where a Carthaginian trading-post was established in the 4th century B.C. The Kasbah contains the remains of the citadel, old mosques and Ottoman-style palaces as well as the vestiges of a traditional urban structure associated with a deep-rooted sense of community.

A traditional human habitat, created in the 10th century by the Ibadites around their five "ksour" (fortified cities), has been preserved intact in the M`Zab valley. Simple, functional and perfectly adapted to the environment, the architecture of M`Zab was designed for community living, while respecting the structure of the family. It is a source of inspiration for today's urban planners.

Located in a strange lunar landscape of great geological interest, this site has one of the most important groupings of prehistoric cave art in the world. More than 15,000 drawings and engravings record the climatic changes, the animal migrations and the evolution of human life on the edge of the Sahara from 6000 B.C. to the first centuries of the present era. The geological formations are of outstanding scenic interest, with eroded sandstones forming "forests of rock".

Timgad lies on the northern slopes of the Aures mountains and was created "ex nihilo" as a military colony by the Emperor Trajan in A.D. 100. With its square enclosure and orthogonal design based on the "cardo" and "decumanus", the two perpendicular routes running through the city, it is an excellent example of Roman town planning.

On the shores of the Mediterranean, Tipasa was an ancient Punic trading-post conquered by Rome and turned into a strategic base for the conquest of the kingdoms of Mauritania. It comprises a unique group of Phoenician, Roman, palaeochristian and Byzantine ruins alongside indigenous monuments such as the Kbor er Roumia, the great royal mausoleum of Mauritania.