Ghardaia has a legend that explains its name. Gherdaia is in fact a word composed of the common name Ghar which means cave in spoken Arabic and the feminine first name Daia.
Ghardia can be translated as “the cave of Daia” and designates the surprising relationship of belonging between a cave and a woman.
If it was, it is because there was a fact that marked the spirits so that the collective imagination continues to remember it since the Middle Ages.
Indeed, legend has it that a young girl of great beauty, named Daia, had a love affair that dishonored her clan and was banished by her community. Abandoned to her sad fate and after wandering for days in nature towards the Sahara, she found refuge in a cave dug in a rock mass, at the door of the desert.
In the evening, to light up and perhaps also to scare away wild animals. Daia was lighting a fire from the branches she picked up around. One day, a traveler by the name of Sidi Bou Gdemma, a very pious man of great kindness, came to pass by, to go and meditate in the mausoleum of a saint. He noticed smoke coming out of the cave.
He went there and discovered the girl. He was dazzled by her beauty and immediately asked her to marry him. They lived in the cave before deciding to found both, the city which bore the name of Ghardaia, in the year 1048. The city prospered and became the capital of the valley of M’zab which is composed of six other oases: Mélika, Beni Isguen, Bou Noura, El Atteuf, Guerrara, Berriane.
Sources: Tales from the Algerian region – Editions Dalimen
Translated from https://babzman.com/contes-et-legendes-du-terroir-la-legende-de-ghardaia/
