Sights in Algeria
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Musée National du Moudjahid
This museum sits beneath the Makam Echahid, its mission to collect, preserve and display objects and memories of the struggle against colonialism. It starts with the story of the French invasion of 1830, but focuses on the glorious struggle from the uprising in Sétif, Constantine and Guelma in 1944 to Independence Day in July 1962. Although information is in Arabic, the meaning of the exhibits is easy to understand, from Abdelkader’s pistols to reports of executions of ‘terrorists’. The museum’s lower floor is a domed sanctuary, a natural shrine of low light and no noise, its walls inscribed with verses from the Quran.
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Timgad
Nothing in the surrounding area – certainly nothing in concrete-clad Batna, the jumping-off point 40km away – prepares you for the grandeur of Timgad. Even the entrance is deceptive, a large car park, a line of trees, a museum and then… an entire Roman town. At first sight it may seem just a vast field of stones and rubble, but walk around, take the time, inhabit the place, and Timgad will more than repay the effort. Whatever happened at this site before AD 100 is of little consequence: the story of Timgad begins in grand style when the Emperor Trajan decided to build a colony for soldiers and veterans of his Legion III Augusta. The Colonia Marciana Traiana Thamugadi,…
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Djemila Ruins
Djemila is small enough to allow you to walk around the entire site comfortably in half a day. But spend longer here, linger in the temples and markets, stroll through the bath chambers, or just lie down on one of the pavements or in the shade of villa walls (as a number of locals were doing during our visit); the magic will be felt and this unique place will be better understood. The museum is to the left on entering the site and is best visited before the ruins. At quiet times, it is kept locked, but will be opened if you ask at the entrance to the site. Outside the museum building there are many tombstones and other funerary sculptures, the outer walls lined with…
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Tiddis
Although it in no way compares to the splendour of Djemila, the Roman town of Tiddis makes a great day trip from Constantine. The guardian will appear at your arrival to sell you a ticket and may want you to pay for guiding services. Drinks and snacks are sometimes available, but you should be sure at least to bring your own water in summer. There was a settlement on this site from early times, at least since the Neolithic Berbers, but it was the Romans who developed Castellum Tidditanorum, which, as its name suggests, was a castellum or fortress, one of a series of fortified villages that surrounded the larger settlement at Constantine (then Cirta) and protected its…
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Lambèse-Tazoult
The road from Batna towards Timgad and Khenchela makes a slight detour around the modern village of Tazoult, infamous as the location of a high-security prison, the latest incarnation of a penitentiary built by the French in 1855. But military presence here goes back much further than the French because all around (and beneath) Tazoult lie the remains of a settlement that once served as the capital of Roman Numidia and was, for a long time, the partner and sometime rival of nearby Timgad. Lambaesis has disappeared from most itineraries and, if seen at all by visitors, it is usually glimpsed from the window of a car or bus as they shuttle between Batna and Timgad. There…
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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…
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Mosque & Tomb of Sidi Boumediene
About 1.6km southeast of the centre, as the crow flies, lies one of Algeria’s most beautiful complexes, the Mosque & Tomb of Sidi Boumediene, restored by craftsmen from Fès in 1986. Abu Madyan Shu’ayb ibn al-Husayn al-Ansari, to give him his full name, was born near Seville around 1115 and studied with Islamic mystics in Morocco before settling in Bejaya on the north Algerian coast and creating his own Sufi circle. A mystic, poet and man of great integrity – he was called the Sheikh of Sheikhs and the Nurturer – Abu Madyan, or Sidi Boumediene, as the Algerians call him, died in Tlemcen in 1197, on his way back to Marrakech. His tomb has become a place of pilgrimage and…
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Museum
The Museum is to the left on entering the site and, as ever, is best visited before the ruins. At quiet times, it is kept locked, but will be opened if you ask at the entrance to the site. Outside the museum building there are some of the many tombstones and other funerary sculptures, the outer walls lined with mosaics salvaged from the site, the covered court housing busts of the emperor Septimus Severus and his wife, Julia Domna.
The mosaics, which line most of the interior walls, are more impressive. Among the treasures here are a mosaic showing a hunting scene, the 10m long so-called Mosaic of the Donkey, which shows a huge range of local animals, and the inscription…
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The Mausoleum of Medracen
As you approach over the flat farmland, something vast and cone-topped appears over the horizon which you would be forgiven for thinking is a hill. It is, instead, a mausoleum and one of Algeria’s many archaeological mysteries. The mausoleum is 18.5m high and 59m in diameter, and composed of a vast number of cut stones laid over a rubble core. It is an imposing construction, a circular base with a conical roof. It was built out of massive stone blocks, the base decorated with 60 columns topped with Doric capitals. It was obviously intended as a royal burial place: there is a false door and a real, hidden entrance that leads – via steps to a corridor and then a cedarwood…
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Bey’s Palace
Much of the area around the headland overlooking the port is a military zone, but don’t let that stop you visiting the misnamed Chateau Neuf (New Castle), which is in fact the old, 14th-century fort of Merinid Sultan Abou Hassan. While some of the complex is closed, the Bey’s Palace is open, in spite of closed gates (you may have to shout for the guard). The massive walls were first built in the 1340s by Merinid Sultan Abou Hassan and reinforced by the Spaniards in 1509, by the Ottomans in the 1700s and the French in the 19th century. The location is perfect, above the town, port and sea, and the gateway is impressive, but there is little majesty left in the building,…
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Djemaa Ketchoua
Of all the central Algiers mosques the Djemaa Ketchoua has had the most turbulent history. Its exact date of construction is not known, but it is estimated as being some time at the beginning of the 17th century and certainly before the Djemaa el-Djedid. Its name translates as place or plateau of goats, a reminder of the time when this space – between the port and citadel – was open ground. It was remodelled in 1794 by Hassan Pasha, when he built his palace next door. The work is commemorated by a long inscription that begins: ‘What a beautiful mosque!’ Today it seems more unusual than beautiful, with its high steps, three-tierd minarets and part-tiled walls. A plaque to…
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Palace of Ahmed Bey
Hajj Ahmed became bey or ruler of Constantine in 1826, and started building his new palace two years later. Progress was slow, partly due to objections of the more powerful dey of Algiers, but Ahmed finally occupied his new home in 1835. Beyond the high white walls lies one of the finest Ottoman-era buildings in the country. With a series of courtyards surrounded by tiled arcades, it is filled with gardens of olive and orange trees, and decorated with Tunisian and French tiles. Ahmed’s enjoyment of this wonderful place was short-lived because two years after he moved in, the French chased him out and turned the palace into their headquarters. After independence the…
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Notre Dame d'Afrique
The Byzantine-inspired Notre Dame d’Afrique, known locally as Madame Afrique, sits above the bustle of the city, seemingly impervious to the fact that the people who created it and filled its pews have long gone. The idea for the church is said to have come from two women of Lyon, who missed the shrine that sits above their native city and who placed a statue of the virgin in the hollow of an olive tree on the north of the city. The basilica was finally consecrated in 1872 by Bishop Lavigerie, founder of the White Fathers. Four years later, the statue was crowned ‘queen of Africa’ with the approval of the Pope in Rome. The date of that event, 30 April, has become the…
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Dar Hassan Pacha
The building beside the Ketchoua Mosque was once the city's grandest mansions and carries the name of its original owner, Dar Hassan Pacha. Hassan was the ruler or Dey of Algiers, a man with a sense of purpose - in 1795 he concluded a peace treaty with the fledgling United States of America guaranteeing their ships safe passage in Algiers' waters. Before that, around 1791, he began his palace on the edge of the Casbah, but away from the waterside, which was vulnerable and damp in winter. When Algiers fell to the French the house was turned into the governor's winter residence. Its facade was remodelled, and unlike most large houses here the Dar Hassan Pacha was given a…
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Mansourah
Just under 3km from the Mechouar, Mansourah – the victorious – never lived up to its name. It started as the camp where Merinid sultan Abou Yacoub settled his army in 1299, when he besieged Tlemcen. The siege lasted eight years, during which the camp became a residence, complete with palace and mosque. Just as the city was about to fall, the sultan was murdered by one of his slaves and the Merinids retreated. Remains of the 12m-high walls that protected the camp stretch across the olive groves far into the distance. The main sight here, though, is the remains of the massive mosque, rebuilt by Sultan Abou el-Hassan of Fès when he came to besiege Tlemcen in 1335. The…
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Djemaa el-Kebir
A few steps from the Djemma el-Djedid, the Djemaa el-Kebir continues a tradition that goes back to the early history of Algiers. On a rise above the inner port, early Berber and Phoenician inhabitants built places of prayer here, which the Romans turned into a temple; later it was converted into a Christian basilica. One apse of the basilica faced east and was hung with carpets and icons. This was later torn down and replaced, in the 11th century, by the mosque, which has since been much altered and enlarged. Inside the five doors the prayer hall is supported by rows of columns, 72 in all, and contains a cedarwood minbar which carries an inscription stating that the…
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Grand Mosque
Constantine is graced with Souk el-Ghazal Mosque and several other beautiful mosques, but these are only open to Muslims. The oldest, and one of the most visible, is the Grand Mosque. Built in the 13th century on the site of a pagan temple, it was intended, as the Friday mosque, to hold most of the city’s population. Although it has been rebuilt over the centuries and has a modern façade, the interior has retained some of its original features, including some pillars and Corinthian capitals brought from Hippo Regius. The city’s most prominent monument – you will see its twin 107m high minarets as you approach the centre – is the Mosque of Emir Abdelkader. The…
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Cirta Museum
The city doesn’t have much to show for its illustrious past, but the colonial-period museum has proof enough. The collection comes from excavations in the city and nearby Tiddis and with the displays being something of a jumble, it appears as an old-style ‘cabinet of curiosities’. But there are some stunning pieces, the highlights include a seated terracotta figure from a 2nd-century BC tomb and an exquisite marble bust of a woman known as the ‘beauty of Djemila’. Also worth seeing is the beautifully cast bronze sculpture of winged ‘Victory of Constantine’, found by soldiers while excavating the streets of the casbah in 1855. If you are planning a visit to the Roman…
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Theatre and Museum
It you are following the story of ancient Algeria then you will want to stop at Guelma. The modern town is a sleepy, provincial place with little to show for its illustrious past. The rue 8 May 1945, just beyond the central Hôtel la Couronne, leads to the Jardin Archéologique, where columns and statues have been arranged in a garden that was locked at the time of our visit. Beyond lies the theatre and museum. Most of the ancient theatre was quarried over the centuries, so what stands today – a soaring backdrop, an imposing stage and rows of seating – dates back no further than 1902, when the French archaeologist M Joly began the reconstruction. The site is impressive…
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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…
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Mechouar & Chambre de l'Artisanat et des Métiers
Very little remains of the early settlement of Agadir, but the camp Youssef ben Tachfine occupied during his siege of Agadir has now become the Mechouar (entrance on av Cdt Ferradj). A citadel was built over the camp in 1145 and has been one of the town’s centrepieces ever since. The Zianide ruler Yaghmorassen moved his residence inside the Mechouar walls in the early 14th century and a mosque was built in the 1310s. The Ottoman admiral Barbarossa used it as his stronghold in the 16th century and the French followed suit after the fall of Tlemcen, using it as a barracks and hospital. Today the Mechouar offers a place of peace inside its massive walls and across its broad…
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Place 1 Novembre
Oran's main square, the Place 1 Novembre, is the definitive expression of French rule in Oran. The city's main meeting place (called pl Napoleon, pl d'Armes and pl Maréchal Foch at various times in its history), it has a baroque theatre on one side and the town hall on the other, which was the city's main meeting place. In the middle of the square stands an obelisk topped with a Winged Victory, erected by French sculptor Dalou in 1898.
The original work commemorated the French soldiers who died at the battle of Sidi-Brahim in 1845. After independence the French sculpture was replaced by busts of the Sufi saint Moulay Abdelkader. The town hall, which Camus thought…
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Palais des Raïs
The palace is in fact a row of several large waterfront houses, joined up to form a single compound and now home to the Centre des Arts et de la Culture. Palace 18, the main building, was begun in 1750 and completed around 1798 by the Dey Mustapha Pacha, who used it as one of his residences. The French military occupied it for a while, after which it served as the American consulate, a school and a library before becoming the most successful restoration project in the city. The buildings are used as exhibition space for some excellent shows, but much of the pleasure and interest is in seeing inside a grand, Ottoman-period mansion. The rooms are rarely massive,…
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Citadel
The city's stronghold, the Citadel dominates the Casbah and the port and was, from the 16th century, the guarantor of peace and a safe haven in times of war. Although there was a Berber stronghold here from early times, the present massive structure was begun in 1516 by Aroudj, the brother of Kheireddin Barbarossa. With its walls lined with batteries of canon, 188m above sea level, it dominated the port, the lower town and the surrounding countryside.
Canons were placed facing inland as well as out to sea, for the ruler of Algiers was never free of threats from Berber and Bedouin tribes. The citadel was little more than military barracks until 1816, when the British…
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Djemaa el-Djedid
Colonial French town planners cleared many Ottoman buildings when they redesigned the Algiers waterfront and laid out what is now the place des Martyrs, but they left the Djemaa el-Djedid. Contrary to its name, the New Mosque, sometimes also called the Pêcherie Mosque, was built in 1660 on the site of an earlier Quranic school and paid for by public subscription. The mosque is unusual for Algiers, built in a recognisably Turkish style, with a series of domes and vaults, although the minaret is Andalusian in style. It is also unusual for being designed as a cross: local legend has it that the architect was a Christian, supposedly executed for his trickery. It has two…
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