Bardo Museum of Prehistory & Ethnography

The Bardo Museum of Prehistory & Ethnography was built at the end of the 18th century as the country residence of a Tunisian prince exiled in Algiers. Enlarged by a Frenchman during the colonial period, it has been a museum since 1930, displaying the early history and later ethnology of the region. This includes some fabulous fossils, a collection of Neolithic pottery and stones, and particularly impressive rock carvings and paintings of horses and chariots brought from deep in the Sahara in the Tassili N’Ajjer region. Better still is the collection of urban artefacts in the ethnography section. See the elegant copper tea pot, the carved and painted wooden furniture and the grand rooms in which these objects are displayed. Stroll out into the upper courtyard with its cooling central pool and the world in which these objects were created suddenly seems much more familiar. The gardens are a delight. A café was planned at the time of our visit, but was not yet open.