Exploration of the Algiers Cultural and Ancient Heritage

Arrival, welcome and assistance at Algiers international airport. Transfer by vehicle to the city center. Check-in at a guesthouse.

Visit of the Casbah, the old Medina of Algérie. Nicknamed Al Bahdja (The Radiant) or (The White), by both Algerians and French people, it is the capital of Algérie and the largest city in the country. With nearly five million inhabitants, the agglomeration of greater Algérie brings together 10% of the Algerian population and ranks first among the most populated cities in the Maghreb.

The Casbah was built in the 10th century. We will begin our visit with the Citadel (the palace of the Dey) or Dar El Soltane. Places to visit: the Dey's Mosque, the Janissaries Club, the craftsmen (ceramicist, furniture maker, etc.), the alleyways where the film The Battle of Algérie by Gillo Pontecorvo was shot (released in 1966), the Sidi Mohammed Chérif Mosque, the Sidi Mohammed Chérif Fountain, the Ali la Pointe Museum, the market of the Mosque of the Jews, the periphery of the Ketchaoua Mosque and the Mustapha Bacha Museum. The duration of the visit is 3 to 4 hours maximum, depending on the pace of the group.

Lunch with a traditional meal at a guest table in the Casbah.

Continuation of our visit in the afternoon through the Square of Martyrs. Visit to the Palace of the Raïs "Bastion 23" - Cultural Centre of the Arts – the only witness to the extension of the Casbah to the sea. Then we will go to higher ground (transfer by vehicle) to visit the "Basilica of Notre Dame d'Afrique". If the sky is clear we will probably be able to witness a beautiful sunset.

Return to the city center. Dinner on your own. Overnight at the guest house.

Visit to the Bardo Museum in the morning. The villa, commissioned by a wealthy Tunisian exile, Mustapha Ben Omar, was built on the heights of Algiers at the end of the 18th century to serve as a summer residence for welcoming the notables of the time. In turn, the property passes through several people, including Admiral Maurice Exelmans in 1830, General Valentin Auguste Lichtlin in 1846, officer and landscape painter artist Prosper Baccuet in 1851, Monsieur Grauby in 1868, then Madame Aziza Fao, daughter of Jewish merchant Joseph Cohen-Bacri in 1874. In 1875, the villa became the property of Ali Bey Bouakkaz, Agha of Biskra, then he resold it in 1879 to Monsieur Pierre Joret, the last occupant of the villa.

Upon his death, his sister, Madame Frémont, ceded the Bardo villa to the French State in 1926, which transformed it into a Museum of Ethnography and Indigenous Art. Inaugurated in 1930, on the occasion of the centenary of colonization, the museum became the Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography, whose founder and first curator is the prehistorian Maurice Reygasse, then the National Museum of Bardo in 1985, and classified the same year as a historical monument.

Concerning the word Bardo, it would be a deformation that comes from the Spanish name Prado, which means garden, place of pleasure. It would refer to the sumptuous palaces of the Hafsid sultans dating back to the 15th century, traces of which are found in the Tunisian suburbs. Currently, the Bardo Museum houses an important collection of ethnography and African art.

Visit to the city center – the unusual Algiers –, Didouche Mourad street, the market, the craft shops up to the main post office, then Larbi Ben M'Hidi street - formerly Isly street - and Emir Abdelkader square.

Hiking walk on the seafront.

Visit to the National Museum of Fine Arts in Algérie, one of the largest art museums in Africa. Open to the public since May 5, 1930, it is located in the Hamma district, near the Hamma botanical garden. The museum with its 8,000 works brings together painted works, drawings, engravings and old prints, sculptures, antique furniture and decorative art, ceramics, glassware, as well as a numismatic collection. Among the works on display are paintings by Dutch and French masters such as Brugghen, Van Uyttenbroeck, Van Goyen, Monet, Matisse, Delacroix, Honoré Daumier, Renoir, Gauguin and Pissarro. But also iconic Algerian artists, such as Baya, Yellès and Racim. The museum houses sculptures by Rodin, Bourdelle and Belmondo.

In the afternoon, visit to the Botanical Garden "Jardin d'essai du Hamma". Created in 1832, with the aim of draining marshy land in order to transform it into agricultural land, the Garden became a "Central Government Nursery", which initially extended over 5 hectares and then expanded to 18 hectares in 1837. Subsequently, it became an "Acclimatization Garden" and then a "Pleasure Garden" with the development of horticulture; the goal being to introduce various plant species in order to test their acclimatization and adaptability to the local climate.

The El-Hamma Test Garden served as a natural setting for the filming in 1932 of Tarzan, the ape man by American director Woodbridge Strong Van Dyke. The character of this jungle lord was played on screen in this feature film by Johnny Weissmüller, an American actor of Austro-Hungarian origin. Tarzan, a fictional character known throughout the world, inspired several writers, filmmakers and comic book creators. One need only close their eyes to imagine, emanating from a giant fig tree, the very first cry of Tarzan.

Visit of the Great Mosque of Algiers in the morning. With its spectacular dimensions, the Great Mosque of Algiers has become the largest mosque in Africa. It is also the 3rd largest in the world, behind those of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. Spanning nearly 30 hectares, its site features a vast prayer hall, as well as a reception space for exhibitions, a museum of Islamic art and history spanning 15 centuries, a media library, amphitheaters and a research center. The total capacity of the site is around 120,000 people. The gigantic prayer hall can accommodate some 35,000 worshippers.

In the afternoon, visit of the Archdiocese of Algiers. The Archdiocese of Algiers is a particular church of the Catholic Church in Algérie. Established in 1838, the Diocese of Algiers was elevated to the rank of metropolitan archdiocese in 1866. Its seat is the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Algiers.

In the Roman period the current site of Algiers was occupied by the city of Icosium (seat of a bishopric), which depended on the province of Mauretania Caesariensis, whose capital was Cherchell. During the Ottoman period, Lazarist Fathers successively held the position of apostolic vicar from 1650 to 1827, serving Christians, bagnes, merchants and consuls.

The Church regained a diocesan structure in 1838 with the creation of the Diocese of Algiers, which covered all of Algérie until 1866, when it became an archdiocese with the creation of two other dioceses in the North. After Monsignor Dupuch (1846-1866), who was the interlocutor of Emir Abdelkader, and Monsignor Pavy (1846-1866), the builder of the Basilica of Notre Dame d'Afrique, Cardinal Lavigerie led the Diocese of Algiers from 1866 to 1892. Upon his arrival (1868) he founded the White Fathers and the White Sisters (1869).

Free dinner. Overnight stay.

Visit of the "House of Peace" Dar Esslam, lower Casbah of Algiers, which was inaugurated on July 22, 2022 by Sheikh Khaled Bentounes, dedicated to universal values of peace, fraternity and humanity. This building will bear the first marker in Algiers, echoing the international day of living together which was decreed by the UN on December 8, 2017 and the date chosen is May 16. Algerian initiative, initiated by the guide of the Alawiya tariqa Sheikh Khaled Bentounes.

In the afternoon, visit of the Palais des Raïs – Arts and Culture Centre-, also called "Bastion 23", which is one of the most important historical monuments in the city of Algiers. It represents, moreover, one of the last witnesses that physically attest to the extension of the Medina of El Djazair (Casbah) towards the sea, during the Ottoman period until the 19th century.

At the end of the visit, we will have a coffee at the "Café Malakoff", a mythical place steeped in the memory of the master of Châabi music El Hadj M'Hammed El Anka.

Free dinner and thematic evening of Châabi music. Overnight.

Breakfast and departure to the airport, departure assistance and boarding on an international flight.