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Qal'at Bani Hammad

File:28-2_Kalâa_de_Beni_Hammad_(3).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Qal'at Bani Hammad

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Also known as Al Qal'a of Beni Hammad

fortified palatine city in Algeria

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Place details

Locality
Maadid ⵎⴰⵄⴷⵉⴷ المعاضيد
Region
المسيلة M'Sila ⵎⵙⵉⵍⴰ
Country
ⵍⵣⵣⴰⵢⴻⵔ الجزائر
Population
0

via OpenStreetMap · GeoNames

Air quality

35US AQIGood
PM2.5
3.6 µg/m³
PM10
5.6 µg/m³
As of 2026-09-26 02:00 · Open-Meteo

Key facts

Alternative name
Beni Hammad Fort
Location
Maadid , M'Sila Province , Algeria
Type
Settlement
Builder
Hammad ibn Buluggin
Founded
1007 CE
Abandoned
1090 CE
Periods
Hammadid dynasty
Condition
In ruins
Architectural styles
Western Islamic
Official name
Al Qal'a of Beni Hammad
Criteria
iii
Designated
1980 (4th session )
Region
Arab States

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Official name
قلعة بني حماد
Country
Algeria
Located in
M'Sila Province
Area
150
Image
28-2 Kalâa de Beni Hammad (3).jpg
Show 4 more facts
Commons category
Qal'at Bani Hammad
inception
1007-00-00
dissolved, abolished or demolished date
1090-00-00
native label
قلعة بني حماد
Sources (3)

via Wikidata · CC0

~7 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Qal'at Bani Hammad (Arabic: قلعة بني حماد), also known as Qal'a Bani Hammad or Qal'at of the Beni Hammad (among other variants), is a fortified palatine city in Algeria. Now in ruins, in the 11th century, it served as the first capital of the Hammadid dynasty. It is in the Hodna Mountains northeast of M'Sila, at an elevation of 1,418 metres (4,652 ft), and receives abundant water from the surrounding mountains. The site is near the town of Maadid (aka Maadhid), about 225 kilometres (140 mi) southeast of Algiers, in the Maghreb.

In 1980, it was inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO under the name Al Qal'a of Beni Hammad, and described as "an authentic picture of a fortified Muslim city".

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Qal'at Bani Hammad” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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