ANCIENT ALGERIA AND CITIES OF THE M'ZAB — From Tipaza to Ghardaïa, thirteen days at the heart of great civilizations

Arrival at Ahmed Ben Bella Airport in Oran. Our English-speaking team welcomes you at the plane exit and assists you with immigration formalities and baggage collection, before the transfer to the city center.

First contact with Oran the radiant, Algeria's second city, a Mediterranean port with indefinable charm where Andalusian, Spanish, Ottoman and French heritage have crossed for centuries. Depending on arrival times, stroll along the seafront and discovery of the 1st November Square — the famous "Place d'Armes" with its town hall featuring two bronze lions, the Abdelkader Alloula regional theater, the Sacred Heart Cathedral (today a municipal library).

Welcome dinner in a typical restaurant in downtown Oran. Night at the hotel.

Early morning departure heading east along the Mediterranean coast. We leave Oran and its wine-producing hinterland to reach the Algerian coastline. Our first major ancient stop is Cherchell, the former Caesarea of Mauretania: capital of the kingdom of Juba II and Cleopatra Selene (daughter of Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony), at the turn of our era, Cherchell became one of the most brilliant cultural centers of the Berber-Roman world.

Visit to the Cherchell archaeological museum, renowned for its exceptional collection of ancient sculptures — a veritable anthology of African Greco-Roman art. Discovery of the remains of the baths and the aqueduct that supplied the city from Atlas sources. Lunch in Cherchell.

In the afternoon, continue to Tipaza, an ancient Phoenician city that became a Roman colony, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. In an exceptional Mediterranean setting — the remains descend in a gentle slope down to the sea — we discover the forum, the theater, the Christian basilica, the Villa of Frescoes, all in an atmosphere that already evoked for Albert Camus, who loved to stay there, "the Tyrrhenian wedding feasts".

Route towards Algiers the White, contemporary capital built amphitheater-style on the bay. Lunch in the city.

In the afternoon, we set off to discover the Casbah of Algiers, a medina listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. This fortified city climbs the hillside from the port to the Ottoman citadel. We walk through its winding streets, its vaulted passages and its staircases: Bastion 23 (Palace of the Rais), Ketchaoua Mosque, former Turkish patrician residences.

At the end of the day, we ascend to the Basilica of Notre-Dame d'Afrique on the heights of Bologhine. Built in 1872 by architect Jean-Eugène Fromageau in a Romano-Byzantine style and accessible by funicular, it is considered the twin sister of Notre-Dame de la Garde in Marseille. Its unique feature is having the apse facing southwest rather than east.

Early morning departure eastward on the East-West highway. We cross the high plateaus and the foothills of the Atlas Mountains to reach, halfway through, the ancient city of Djemila — the ancient Cuicul. A site listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and considered by many as one of the most beautiful Roman ensembles in the world, Djemila is nestled at 900 meters altitude in a landscape of lush hills that rivals Tuscany.

Lunch on site. In the afternoon, in-depth visit of the site with our guide: the civil forum and the Severian forum, the capitol, the great arch of Caracalla, the theater backed against the hill (3000 seats), the Christian basilica, the Severian district with its rich villas. The Djemila museum, located at the entrance of the site, houses one of the most beautiful collections of Roman mosaics in the world.

Continuation towards Constantine in late afternoon (≈ 130 km / 1h45). Arrival in early evening. Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

Departure towards the south by the Aurès highlands. The landscape changes progressively: we leave the irrigated lands of the Tell to enter the vast pre-Alpine steppe which already announces the great folding of the Sahara.

Arrival at Timgad — the ancient Thamugadi —, a Roman colony founded ex nihilo by the emperor Trajan in the year 100 to house the veterans of the third legion Augusta. Site listed as UNESCO World Heritage, nicknamed the "African Pompeii", Timgad was preserved by the sands that engulfed it in the 7th century after the Vandal and Arab invasions.

In-depth visit of the city: its perfect checkerboard plan with the cardo maximus and the decumanus crossing at right angles embodies the Roman urban ideal; the arch of Trajan; the theatre with 3,500 seats backed against the hill; the paved forum; the capitol; the numerous baths; the library (one of the oldest known, with its manuscript niches); and the Christian basilica. Inscription engraved on the forum, full of Roman humor: "Venari, lavari, ludere, ridere — occ est vivere" ("To hunt, to bathe, to play, to laugh — that is living").

Lunch on site. Visit to the museum and its mosaics.

Road to Batna in late afternoon. Dinner and overnight stay.

Route southward through the Aurès, land of the Chaouias — a Berber population that keeps its traditions and language alive. The landscape becomes more mineral, more austere, and the high plateaus gradually give way to gorges and cliffs.

Stop at the spectacular Balcons du Ghoufi: a deep canyon with ochre cliffs, carved into the southern foothills of the Atlas, where ancient troglodytic villages cling to the rock. At the bottom of the canyon, a narrow terraced palm grove bears witness to the agricultural genius of the inhabitants in cultivating under extreme conditions. Lunch with a view of the Balcons.

Continuation toward Biskra through the El Kantara gorges — the "mouth of the Sahara" as 19th-century travelers already called it. This is where the great shift toward the South takes place: we cross the bridge spanning the wadi, and on the other side, the climate, light, and vegetation have changed. We are now in Saharan territory.

Arrival in Biskra, the "Queen of the Zibans," famous throughout Algeria for its Deglet Nour dates.

Heading west through the high steppes plateaus towards Bou Saâda, the "City of Happiness". We traverse landscapes of great austerity: steppes dotted with esparto grass, flocks of sheep, discreet adobe villages. Lunch en route. Arrival in mid-afternoon at Bou Saâda.

This oasis nestled at the foot of the Ouled Naïl mountains was the great center of pictorial orientalism at the turn of the 20th century. It is here that the French painter Étienne Dinet (1861-1929) lived, who converted to Islam and took the name Nasreddine Dinet — one of the very rare Western artists to have truly "embraced" the civilization he painted, even accomplishing the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1929 where he died.

Free exploration of the ksar and the palm grove in late afternoon. Dinner and night.

Road heading south through the steppes landscape of the Saharan Atlas. We cross a major geographic threshold approaching Laghouat — beyond here, the true Sahara begins. The roads become straight, the horizon opens up, the first vast desert expanses appear.

Arrival at Ghardaïa in late afternoon. Capital of the M'Zab valley, an Ibadite territory classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1982, the Mozabite pentapolis is one of the most extraordinary examples in the world of spontaneous and functional urbanism. It was here that the Ibadite Berbers — a separate branch of Islam, formed in the 8th century —, driven from central Maghreb by successive Sunni powers, founded in the 11th century a veritable archipelago of fortified cities.

Stay in a guesthouse in the heart of the palm grove. Dinner and first contact with Mozabite architecture and cuisine. Night.

Transfer to Noumérat - Moufdi Zakaria airport and Air Algérie flight to Algiers in the late afternoon.

Arrival at Houari Boumediene with direct connection to the return international flight according to schedules.

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