GARDATA, or Ghardaya (in the local documents Taghardeit), a town of North Africa in the Algerian Sahara, situated on a hill in the middle of the Wadi Mezab, on the route between Morocco and Tripoli, about 36 miles W.N.W. of Wargla, in 32° 28' N. lat., and 4° 39' E. long., at a height of 1755 feet above the sea-level. Gardaia is well built of limestone, and defended by a bastioned wall pierced with seven gates. There is a Jewish quarter inhabited by about 200 families who hold a large part of the industry of the town in their hands; but the principal inhabitants are the Beni Mezab, who speak the a/wal domsab, a dialect of the Berber language slightly modified by Arabic. According to native accounts the town was founded in 952 of the Hegira. In modern times the Turks under Raiss Salah Bey attempted to subjugate the inhabitants, but their invasion was successfully repulsed. Aghrem Baba Saâd, a small ruined town to the west of Gardaia, is the fortified post in which the Beni Mezab took refuge. At the time of Duveyrier’s visit in 1859, Gardaia paid a tribute of 45,000 francs to the French. The population is estimated at from 13,000 to 14,000.