555 ANNALS OF GEOPHYSICS, VOL. 47, N. 2/3, April/June 2004 Key words Historical seismicity – Algeria 1. Introduction This work discusses some of the most im- portant reported earthquakes that occurred in Algeria since 1365, and the issues involved with their study. For the early times in Algeria, only one reli- able earthquake catalogue for the province of Algiers has been published (Ambraseys and Vogt, 1988), which extends back to the four- teenth century. With regard to regional studies, in Tunisia, the earthquake catalogue compiled by Rothé (1980) dates from 410 but does not contain enough information about the sources used. For Morocco, Ramdani et al. (1988) pub- lished a list of historical earthquakes. Mezcua and Martinez-Solares (1983) compiled an earthquake catalogue for the Ibero-Maghreb re- gion for the period 500 B.C.-1980. Alexis Perrey is without any doubt the pio- neer in this domain. Perrey published a note on the earthquakes in Algeria (Perrey, 1848) and he continued his publication by notes on earth- quakes in Algeria up to 1871 in his annual lists. Later M. Chesneau published in the Annales des Mines, a note on the earthquakes during the pe- riod 1716-1887 containing some interesting de- tails (Chesneau, 1892). At the same time, Montessus de Ballore (1892) published some comments on the number of earthquakes felt in Algeria under the title «La France et l’Algérie sismiques». The seismicity of North Africa is al- so addressed in the book «Les tremblements de terre, géographie sismologique» published by Montessus de Ballore (1906). This book in- cludes a map showing the earthquakes reported in Algeria. During the last century, several notes were published in the Comptes Rendus de l’A- cadémie des Sciences (CRAS) about seismic events in Algeria. A further listing of Algerian earthquakes was published in the Bulletin du Materials for the investigation of historical seismicity in Algeria from the records of past earthquakes Djillali Benouar Built Environment Research Laboratory, University of Bab Ezzouar (USTHB), Civil Engineering Department, Bab Ezzouar, Alger, Algeria Abstract This paper presents some materials relating to the investigation of historical seismicity in Algeria. The histori- cal seismicity in Algeria is imperfectly known: its coverage is discontinuous and its record is grossly deficient. The seismicity of the twentieth century is relatively well documented; however, the further back in time, the harder it becomes to collect data. Even so, important research work in studying the seismicity in Algeria has been made in the past by several studies, notably those by Alexis Perrey, M. Chesneau, F. de Montessus de Ballore, N.N. Ambraseys and J. Vogt. This paper discusses the problems of historical earthquake investigation in Algeria and presents a selection of notable historical earthquakes in the country. Mailing address: Dr. Djillali Benouar, Built Environment Research Laboratory, University of Bab Ezzouar (USTHB), Civil Engineering Department, BP 32 El-Alia, Bab Ezzouar, Alger 16111, Algeria; e-mail: dbenouar@yahoo.com