M'Zab Valley — UNESCO World Heritage nomination

The 1982 UNESCO inscription dossier for the M'Zab Valley, recognising the Pentapolis of Ghardaïa, Beni Isguen, Bounoura, El Atteuf, and Melika as a continuous urban tradition representing the integrity of medieval Saharan urbanism and the continuity of the Ibadi Berber community that built and maintains the towns.

The inscription is among the earliest of the Saharan-Maghreb earthen heritage listings — fourteen years before the Mauritanian ksour and five before Aït Ben Haddou — and reflects the unusually well-preserved state of the M'zab compared to its regional counterparts.