Flag of Algeria

What the flag of Algeria looks like

The Algerian flag has two vertical bands of equal width: green next to the pole and white on the fly side. Its proportions are 2:3, which means that the green is exactly half of the flag, answering a common question. In the center, centered on the line between the two colors, is a red crescent that holds a red five-pointed star.

The star is placed within the arc of the crescent, and the crescent opens to the fly. The design is simple, with only three colors, and no inscription. Take a look at the Algeria flag emoji for the small-size version.

Algeria flag meaning and symbolism

Sources agree that green is a color of Islam. White is read as purity or peace, and also has religious associations; red is linked to jihad in the sense of the struggle for the faith. The red crescent is a symbol of Islam, and the five-pointed star is said to stand for either the five pillars of Islam or the five daily prayers.

Interpretations differ. One author reads green as the earth and agriculture, and another suggests that the three colors originally stood for the three countries of the Maghreb. The crescent and star appear on the flags of several Muslim-majority countries, so they do not by themselves point to a particular source.

History of the Algerian flag

Before the French conquest began in 1830, Algeria was an Ottoman province governed from Algiers. In the 19th century, the resistance leader Emir Abdelkader, who fought the French in the 1830s and 1840s, used a green-and-white flag at his tent, and green and white later became important to the nationalist movement.

The modern design is linked to the Algerian nationalist movement of the 1920s and 1930s, in particular to Messali Hadj and his organization the Étoile Nord-Africaine. His wife, Émilie Busquant, is generally credited with sewing the first version of the green-and-white flag with a red crescent and star in 1934, although there is some dispute over who designed it, and trade union demonstrators are reported to have shown a similar flag in 1919 and 1920. The design was taken up by the Algerian People's Party and then by the National Liberation Front (FLN), which led the fight against France, and the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic adopted it in 1958.

The flag was officially adopted on 3 July 1962, when Algeria became independent from France, and it was formalized and standardized by a law of 25 April 1963.

Flags that look like the Algerian flag

The closest relative is the flag of Pakistan, which also combines green, white, a crescent and a star, but has a white vertical stripe at the hoist and a larger green field. The flag of Mauritania has a green field with a yellow crescent and star and, since 2017, red stripes at the top and bottom, and Tunisia has a red flag with a white disc, crescent and star. Algeria is also in North Africa, so you might compare it with the flags in Africa.