Algeria

Roman Ruins and Ancient Civilisations

Algeria holds some of the finest Roman archaeological sites in the world. Timgad, founded by Emperor Trajan in 100 CE, is so well preserved that its street grid and theatre remain almost intact beneath the Aurès Mountains. Djémila, a UNESCO World Heritage site perched at 900 metres elevation, rewards visitors with forum temples and triumphal arches in a setting of extraordinary solitude. Earlier still, the Numidian royal mausoleums and the Phoenician port city of Hippo Regius — where Saint Augustine lived and wrote — demonstrate layers of civilisation that stretch back well before Rome.

The Casbah of Algiers and Ottoman Legacy

The Casbah of Algiers cascades down a steep hillside to the Bay of Algiers in a dense maze of whitewashed houses, Ottoman palaces, and mosques that earned it UNESCO listing in 1992. Narrow vaulted passageways open unexpectedly onto small squares, and the city's Ottoman-era palaces, Dar Hassan Pasha, Dar Aziza, preserve ornate tilework and carved cedarwood interiors largely unchanged from the eighteenth century. Below, the waterfront boulevard and the French-era streets of the lower city offer a contrasting architectural layer from Algeria's colonial period.

Saharan Journeys and the Hoggar Mountains

The Hoggar Mountains in the deep south are among the most otherworldly landscapes on the continent. Volcanic spires of black basalt rise above a plateau of ancient rock, and the hermitage of Charles de Foucauld at Assekrem sits at 2,700 metres with views across an endless volcanic wilderness. The prehistoric rock art of Tassili n'Ajjer — tens of thousands of engravings and paintings dating back 12,000 years — documents a Sahara that was once green and populated by cattle herders, giraffes and crocodiles, making it one of the most significant outdoor galleries of human prehistory anywhere on earth.