Flag of Algeria


The national flag of Algeria consists of two equal vertical bars, green and white, charged in the center with a red star and crescent, a symbol of Islam as the nation's prominent faith. The flag was adopted on 3 July 1962. A similar version was used by the Algerian government in exile from 1958–1962. The Western blazon is per pale vert and argent; a crescent and star gules.

History

The Barbary pirates of Ottoman Algeria between the 15th and 17th century widely used flags that were emblazoned with one or more crescents. These could however vary greatly in color, with dark red, black, green and white being in use. Besides these, Algerian pirates also used various flags in plain color, such as plain black ones signalling death. Less often, Algerian flags of this time also carried other motifs, such as suns, stars and crossed swords. It is also known that city of Algiers used an orange flag with a white horizontal sword on it by the early 19th century.
Émilie Busquant is perhaps best known as the creator of the current Algerian flag. While there is some dispute over who exactly designed green and white with red star and crescent symbol, Busquant is generally credited as having sewed the first version of the flag in 1934.

Description

Algerian ships fly it as their ensign, except for ships of the Algerian National Navy, which use one charged with two white crossed anchors in the canton as the naval ensign. Formerly, the two crossed anchors in the canton were red.
According to algeria-un.org, cited in 1999, the features of the flag are set down precisely, being described as:

Colours scheme		RedGreenWhite
RGB210-16-520-114-41255-255-255
Hexadecimal#d21034#007229#ffffff
CMYK0, 92, 75, 18100, 0, 64, 550, 0, 0, 0
Pantone186 C356 CWhite

Historical flags