Last modified: 2013-12-12 by ivan sache
Keywords: algeria | djazair (al-) | africa | maghreb | islam | crescent (red) | star (red) | construction sheet | president | naval ensign | anchors: 2 (red) | naval jack |
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![[Flag of Algeria]](../images/d/dz.gif)
Flag of Algeria - Image by Željko Heimer, 28 January 2001
Flag adopted 3 July 1962, national emblem adopted 1 November 1976.
Proportions: 2:3.
Description: Flag vertically divided green-white with a red
crescent and star in the middle.
Use: on land, as the national, civil and war flag; on
sea, as the national and civil ensign.
Colour approximate specifications (Album des Pavillons [pay00] ):
On this page:
See also:
![[Construction sheet]](../images/d/dz'.gif)
Construction sheet for the flag of Algeria - Image by Željko Heimer, 28 January 2001
The national flag of Algeria is officially described as follows:
Features
The flag of the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria is constituted by a green and white rectangle embossed by a red star and a red crescent. Colours
The green must be a composition of equal yellow and blue having, according to the diagram of contrasts of Rood, a wavelength of 5.411 and the position 600 on the normal spectre. The red must be pure, of primary non-decomposable colour, and exempt of blue and yellow having, according to the above-indicated diagram, a wavelength of 6.562 and the position 285 on the normal spectre. Proportionspay003 and disposition
The length of the rectangle is equal to one and half its width (height of the flag). This rectangle is divided according to the small median in two halves. The green colour half is placed inside, against the shaft. The white colour half is placed outside.
The star has five branches. It is inscribed in a circle whose radius is equal to the eighth of the height of the flag. It is entirely placed on the white field of the flag; two points are on the small median of the rectangle and a point is on the big median.
The radius of the outside circle of the crescent is equal to the quarter of the height of the flag. The radius of the inner circle of the crescent is equal to the fifth of the height of the flag. The two points of the crescent delimit a big equal bow to the five sixth of the circumference of the outside circle. The centre of the outside circle of the crescent is in the centre of the rectangle.
Thanh-Tâm Lê, 2 January 1999
The protocol manual for the London 2012 Olympics (Flags and Anthems Manual London 2012 [loc12]) provides recommendations for national flag designs. Each NOC was sent an image of the flag, including the PMS shades, for their approval by LOCOG. Once this was obtained, LOCOG produced a 60 x 90 cm version of the flag for further approval. So, while these specs may not be the official, government, version of each flag, they are certainly what the NOC believed the flag to be.
For Algeria, the vertical version is simply the flag turned through 90 degrees, the green on the top.
Ian Sumner, 10 October 2012
The flag was first officially hoisted on 3 July 1962. The flag is said to be a variation of the flag of liberation forces of Abd el-Kader in 1837-1847, but there is no proof of that.
Željko Heimer, 28 November 1995
Quoting the Dorling-Kindersley flag book [rya97]:
[...] the flag was adopted by the National Liberation Front in 1954, based on an older design, created in 1928 by the nationalist leader Messali Hadj. From 1958 to 1962 it was the flag of the Provisional Government in exile, but was retained when independence was achieved in 1962 and has remained unchanged ever since.
The meaning of the colors is green for Islam and white for purity. According to Herzog and Hannes [z2h90], the white color also reminds of Abd el-Kader, who used a white flag in his fight against the French in 1847.
Volker Moerbitz Keith, 11 April 2000
The origin of the Algerian national flag and the identity of its
designer are still unresolved questions, as explained in an article by Houda B. published in El Watan, #2052, 20 August 1997.
The historian M. Yahia claims that the flag was sketched in 1934, the
three colours symbolizing the expected unification of the three
countries of Northern Africa (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia). The first
copy of the flag was made by Messali El Hadj's wife in July 1937. The
flag was used for the first time in Algiers and Belcourt during
demonstrations on 14 July 1937. However, Yahia writes that the flag
could have been shown for the first time in the seat of the Étoile
nord-africaine (Star of North Africa) party in Paris in 1933 and used for the first time in Algeria in Algiers and Tlemcen in 1934. Another
historian, M. Ghannèche, quoted by Yahia, reports that an Algerian flag with the crescent and star located in the upper part of the flag was
adopted, and modified to the today's design in 1943 by the Parti du peuple algérien (Algerian People's Party, the follower of Étoile nord-africaine).
Yahia reports that Emir Abd-el-Kader used a white and green standard, which was found after his death in Cairo. However, Abd-el-Kader's standard is indeed shown in the Army Museum of Riadh El Feth in Algiers. The standard is dark blue, c. 1 x 2 m, bordered with ocher and orange squares. Said to have been found in 1914 in the mosque of Taza in Morocco, the flag was taken over by a captain of the French Army, whose family offerred it to the Army Museum in Hôtel des Invalides, Paris. The flag was retroceded to Algeria in 1970 by Jacques Chevallier, Mayor of Algiers during the French rule, during an official visit to Algiers.
A documentary made by the Algerian TV a few years ago says that the Algerian flag appeared for the first time on 26 June 1926 as the flag of the Étoile nord-africaine. The flag was green with in the upper right corner the writing "Algerian our country, Arabic our language and Islam our religion" in white Arabic letters and in the upper left corner a red star and crescent. In 1944, Fehrat Abbas presided in Setif the National Conference, during which the members of the Amis du manifeste et des libertés used a modified version of the 1926 flag. A report of the headquarters of the French Army in Constantine says that Fehrat Abbas asked women of his family to prepare 20 flags for the Setif conference. A facsimile appended to the report shows a white flag with two green horizontal stripes in the top and bottom of the flag, a red cross on the right of the flag and a red star near the hoist.
There is no official document on the national flag but Law No. 63-145 of 25 April 1963, signed by President Ben Bella and published in the official gazette on 30 April 1963.
Ivan Sache, 17January 2008
![[Naval ensign]](../images/d/dz~nav.gif)
![[Naval ensign, detail]](../images/d/dz~nav).gif)
Algerian naval ensign and detail of the emblem - Images by Martin Grieve, 9 April 2009
The Algerian naval ensign is similar to the national flag, but with two fouled anchors crossed per saltire in canton. The flag is shown on two photos taken by Graham Bartram and presented as follows:
It was taken at the International Festival of the Sea in Portsmouth in 2005. This particular flag was on a staff at the bottom of the gangplank to the Algerian warship that was attending, but the ensign on the ship matched. The flag is actually being held up by the Algerian Naval Officer who was officer of the watch at the time.
As far as an adoption date for the white anchors is concerned, I seem to recall reading that it was 2004, but cannot for the life of me remember where.
Martin Grieve, 13 May 2011
![[Former naval ensign]](../images/d/dz~nav87.gif)
Former Algerian naval ensign - Image by Jaume Ollé & Pascal Gross, 28 January 2001
The former Algerian naval ensign was reported in Emblèmes et Pavillons [eep] No. 17. The
reference does not have a drawing and is only a report of the new
flag which was contained in Correction No. 19 of Album des Pavillons
(1978 edition), dated September 1987. The description states that
the anchors are in red.
The same flag is shown on Album des Pavillons
[pie90] (1990 edition).
Ralph Kelly & Željko Heimer, 29 April 2009
![[Jack of Algeria]](../images/d/dz~jack.gif)
Algerian naval jack - Image by Martin Laurenson Grieve, 15 May 2011
Correction No. 5 (June 2010) of Album des Pavillons shows the Algerian naval jack as a blue flag with the national flag in canton.
The flag's overall proportions appear to be 2:3. The field is blue (PMS 293c) which I translate to RGB 51-0-255 for browser-safe colours. The Algerian Naval ensign appears in canton, in the 2:3 proportions and
is precisely one third of the hoist width of the overall flag.
The fouled anchors which deface the Algerian National flag
which forms the canton appear to be correct. (they are white, and more elaborate than their red predecessors). Album gets it wrong however
on the Naval Ensign. They show what appears to be the same graphic elements from the Egyptian Naval ensign. This is erroneous, as Graham Bartram
is in possession of photographs which show "exactly" how they should look and which are identcal to the fouled anchors on the jack.
Martin Laurenson Grieve, Zoltán Horváth & Christopher southworth, 15 May 2011
The list of the Algerian Heads of State since the independence is the following:
![[President flag?]](../images/d/dz_pres1.gif)
![[Presidential flag?]](../images/d/dz_pres2.gif)
Two reported versions of the President's flag (left, 1979; right, 1999) - Images by Jaume Ollé, 24 December 2001
In 1979, President Bendjedid appeared on a photography together with
a variant of the national flag that may be the Presidential flag. An
identical flag was also reported as a possible Presidential flag by a
correspondent of Aldo Zigiotto.
A possible Presidential flag was reported by J.L. Cepero
on 23 March 1999, seen at the Presidential facilities on Algerian
television. The inscription says Algeria and was confirmed by
Algerian sources. The above image is approximate.
Jaume Ollé, 24 December 2001, translated from Spanish by Joe McMillan
On Algerian TV, when the Algerian President makes a speech in his office, there is always an Algerian coat of arms made in wood behind him and an Algerian flag with the star appearing with "dark" lines inside it, exactly in the same way as pictured above. As for the flag with the name of Algeria (written in yellow, in Arabic, on the green part of the flag), I have never seen it when the President makes his speech.
Omar Mouffok, 2 June 2007