Things to do in Annaba
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Hippo Regius
The ruins of the ancient city of Hippo Regius, also known as Hippone, are among the most evocative in Algeria, stretched across a rolling site, full of flowers, rosemary, olive trees, birds and sheep, and overlooked by the imposing, colonial-era Basilica of St Augustine. You enter from what was the seafront, the water having receded several hundred metres over the millennia. There is a good plan of the site by the entrance. It is worth climbing the small hill to the museum, before seeing the ruins. The ground floor contains a good collection of sculpture in the Salle des Bustes, including the Emperor Vespasian found in the forum. The star piece of the museum, the unique 2…
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Cours de la Révolution
Bône la Coquette (the Elegant) they used to call it, and the centre of town has retained some of its charms, if a little jaded. The Cours de la Révolution was the centrepiece of the French city and remains the bustling heart today.
A long, broad street, its lanes separated by a broad, tree-shaded esplanade, it also boasts the city's most elaborate architecture, where, with buildings such as the Amphorae and the Lion & Caryatid, colonial architects vied to outdo each other in the extravagance of their facades. In the middle, palms and giant fig trees provide shade for a number of popular outdoor cafés, where the city's elderly and idle while away the day.
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Bey's Mosque
Rue des Frères Boucherit leads off the Cours, to the Pl du 19 Aout 1956, the centrepoint of the old town, some of it dating back to the 16th century, when the pirate Kheireddin Barbarossa claimed Annaba for the Ottoman sultan. The streets here are more narrow and the houses less elaborate. There is a small second-hand and food market in the square most days. The Bey's Mosque, built soon after Barbarossa had taken the town, looks over the square and is the largest in this part of town.
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Basilica St Augustine
Towering above the ruins, Hippo Regius, on its own small hill, the colonial-era Basilica St Augustine was intended as a sign of France’s revival of past glory. The first stone was laid in 1881, the basilica completed in 1900. Beneath the soaring nave and huge arches, surrounded by Carrara marble, Grenoble stained glass and local onyx, lies a statue of St Augustine, its right arm containing one of the saint’s arm bones.
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Restaurant SafSaf
It’s hard to fault this simple restaurant, on the 1st floor of Hôtel SafSaf. Clean, air-conditioned and run by a meticulous maître d’, it serves simple, well-prepared dishes including lamb shoulder and grilled fish. There is often a good-value lunch menu.
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Mosque of Sidi Bou Merouane
More interesting than the Bey's Mosque is the Mosque of Sidi Bou Merouane, 250m away, reached via a steep climb up the street. Named after an 11th-century holy man, the mosque is smaller than the Bey's but built using columns and stones from Hippo.
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Restaurant Atlas
A reliable air-conditioned restaurant just off the Cours de la Révolution, it serves grilled steaks and merguez (spicy seasoned lamb or goat sausages), calamari rice and fresh fish. It also serves alcohol.
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El-Rio
Alcohol is hard to find in Annaba; El-Rio tends to stay open later than most. If the weather allows, the cafés under the fig trees along the Cours are popular for a tea or ice cream.
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La Potinière
Right at the beginning of the Cours, the Potinière is an Annaba old-timer, serving reliable French-inspired food, a cut above (and a little more expensive) than most of the competition.
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Le Saint Pizzeria
A popular pizza place right in the centre of things, under the arcades of the Cours. Pick up your pizza and eat under the trees, perfect on a warm evening.
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