El Alia Cemetery (
Arabic: مقبرة العالية) is a cemetery in a suburb of
Algiers in the
commune of
Oued Smar in
Algeria the result of the donation in 1928 of a 78 hectares ( 193 acres) plot of land by its owner called "El Alia" means in
Arabicwhich is high, but came from the surname of the donor of the land in 1928, Hamza El-Alia before her departure to mecca .[1]
History
It comprises tombs of numerous Algerian notables and also has the graves of actors and actresses and other artists (opera singers, musicians, painters, sculptors, architects, writers, poets). It also includes the tombs of several scientists, academicians and sports people.
Emir Abdelkader, military, political and religious leader, freedom fighter, writer, human rights advocate (body controversially reinterned from 1883 burial grounds in Damascus near his mentor Ibn Arabi's body in 1965)