Boughezoul is the proposed new capital of Algeria. Drawing on Brasilia as a precedent, the new city has been planned for a site 200 km south of the current capital Algiers, near the crossing of a number of major national transportation routes. This new capital is intended to draw the Algerian population off the Mediterranean coast, in order to urbanize the country’s vast inland territory of the gas-rich Sahara Desert. The project is sited along the shores of an artificial lake created by the construction of the Boughezoul Dam. Its design principles are said to draw from Masdar City in Abu Dhabi and new town
