Al Qal'a of Beni Hammad

For barely a century and a half, the fortress city of the Beni Hammad ruled from a spectacular mountain setting in Algeria's Hodna range. Founded in 1007 as the Hammadid dynasty's first capital and dismantled in 1152, the Qal'a preserves the authentic layout of a fortified Muslim city, including a great mosque whose thirteen-aisled prayer hall ranks among the largest in the country. UNESCO inscribed the ruins on the World Heritage List in 1980.