M'Zab Valley

In the 10th century, Ibadite communities settling the northern Sahara built five fortified towns in the M'Zab valley, each gathered around its mosque. Their pale, cubic architecture — simple, functional, perfectly fitted to desert life and communal order — has survived essentially intact for a thousand years and famously inspired modern architects and planners, Le Corbusier among them. UNESCO inscribed the M'Zab Valley on the World Heritage List in 1982.