Experience the best of Ghardaia

Ghardaia stands in the M'zab Valley, a dry river bed cut into the limestone plateau of the northern Sahara. The Mozabites, Berber people of the Ibadi branch of Islam, built five fortified towns here between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries, each rising in terraces to a mosque with a plain, tapering minaret.

Ghardaia's market square is lined with arcades and ringed by stepped houses painted sand, ochre and pale blue. The neighbouring towns of Beni Isguen, Melika, Bounoura and El Atteuf each keep their own walls, gates and watchtowers, and the whole valley is a World Heritage site. Le Corbusier visited and admired the simple, cubic houses, and date palms fill the valley floor below.

Couscous, dates and flat bread are everyday food in the M'zab, and Ghardaia is known across Algeria for its woven wool carpets, which hang for sale in the stalls around the market square. The valley is at its mildest in spring and autumn.