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Qal'at Bani Hammad
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How it came to be
In the Hodna Mountains of northern Algeria, at 1,418 metres, lie the ruins of Qal'at Bani Hammad, the first capital of the Hammadid dynasty. Hammad, son of Buluggin ibn Ziri, built the fortress in 1007, and the city withstood a Zirid siege in 1017.
The 11th-century geographer al-Bakri described it as a centre of trade that drew caravans from the Maghreb, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and the Hejaz. A 7-kilometre line of walls enclosed palaces and houses, and the mosque keeps a minaret 20 metres high.
Threatened by the Banu Hilal, the city was abandoned in 1090, and the Almohads destroyed it in 1152. Excavation began in 1908 and resumed from 1952 to 1956. The site was inscribed in 1980.
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