Abalessa

Abalessa is an oasis city in the Sahara in the province ( wilaya ) Tamanrasset in southern Algeria, approximately at the level of the Tropic of Cancer. It is located 80 kilometers west of the provincial capital of Tamanrasset in the south west of the Ahaggar Mountains. 2008 it had about 9,200 inhabitants. Previously it was the capital of Ahaggar.

Not far from Abalessa is a präislamisches grave monument of the 4th or 5th century AD, possibly belongs to the environment of the ancient Berber people of the Garamantes. There, in 1925, archaeologists discovered the skeleton of a noble woman, which is now exhibited in the Bardo Museum in Algiers. This is expected, act to Tin Hinan, the mythical ancestor of the Tuareg and supposedly first queen of the Ahaggar. Furthermore, ancient remains and Roman coins have been found.