Algeria
Northern Africa
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About
Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. Spanning over 2,381,741 square kilometres (919,595 sq mi), it is the largest country in Africa and the tenth largest in the world. It is bordered to the northeast by Tunisia; to the east by Libya; to the southeast by Niger; to the southwest by Mali, Mauritania, and Western Sahara; to the west by Morocco; and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. With a population of over 47 million, Algeria is the tenth-most populous country in Africa. Its capital and largest city is Algiers.
Read more on Wikipedia →The Flag
History
The national flag of Algeria consists of two equal vertical bars, green and white, charged in the center with a red star and crescent, a symbol of Islam as the nation's prominent faith. The flag was adopted on 3 July 1962. A similar version was used by the Algerian government in exile from 1958 to 1962. The Western blazon is per pale vert and argent; a crescent and star gules.
Design & symbolism
The flag aims to highlight Algeria's cultural heritage, but there are different interpretations of its elements. According to Malek Chebel, green represents Islam and white represents purity. For Pierre Lux-Wurm, green and white bring to mind the ancient banners of Islam from the time of the Prophet Muhammad, while the crescent and star can be seen as symbols of light. According to Khaled Merzouk, the green stripe represents the earth and agriculture, the white stripe represents peace and the crescent and star are symbols of Islam. The star represents the five pillars of Islam. Benjamin Stora suggests that the three colors of the flag originally represented the three countries of the Maghreb and the ideas of union.
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