Abalessa

Abalessa ( Arabic أبلسة) is an oasis city of the Sahara in the province ( wilaya ) Tamanrasset in South Algeria , approximately at the level of the northern tropic . It is located 80 kilometers west of the provincial capital Tamanrasset in the southwest of the Ahaggar Mountains. In 2008 it had about 9200 inhabitants. It used to be the capital of Ahaggar.

Not far from Abalessa is a pre-Islamic grave monument from the 4th or 5th century AD, which possibly belongs to the environment of the ancient Berber people of the Garamanten . There archaeologists discovered the skeleton of a noble woman in 1925, which is now exhibited in the Bardo Museum in Algiers . It is said to be Tin Hinan , the mythical ancestor of the Tuareg and allegedly the first queen of Ahaggar. Furthermore, ancient remains and Roman coins were found.

literature

• Abalessa. In: Hellmut Brunner, Klaus Flessel, Friedrich Hiller (eds.): Lexicon of old cultures. Vol. 1, Meyers Lexikonverlag, Mannheim 1990, ISBN 3-411-07301-2 , p. 10.
• Birgit Agada, Adolf Schuster, ´: Algeria. Trescher Verlag 2010, ISBN 978-3-89794-155-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Abalessa municipality (Tamanrasset, Algeria) - inhabitants, map and location. on: citypopulation.de

Coordinates: 22 ° 53 '  N , 4 ° 51'  E