Rocking the Casbah

One of the main “tourist” attractions in Algeria (I use the quotations marks because tourism is really not big here) is the Casbah, or citadel, which is the old part of Algiers. The area was instrumental in the Algerian rebels’/freedom fighters’ strategy during their war of independence in the 1950s, and was the setting for the film, The Battle of Algiers.

It is also now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For various reasons it’s difficult for us, as U.S. Embassy folks, to go to the area on our own, so our fabulous CLO (Community Liaison Office) planned a trip for us to go. A van-full of us headed over and met a guide who took us on a fantastic tour of the windy roads of the Casbah. We ended up at the home of a local guy who has made a business of cooking traditional Algerian meals for tourist groups.

The Casbah is basically on the side of a big hill, sloping down to the water. We started at the top of the hill and worked our way down. The first stop involved climbing to the roof of a house and over looking the entire area:

Here’s me on that same roof:

Then we went down and began to make our way through the area, which is well known for it’s narrow, haphazard streets, like these:

We briefly went into a lovely mosque (no photos allowed on the inside):

And, after a couple of stops at teeny tiny little workshops of guys who crafted various items out of wood and copper, and sweating like it was my job in the extremely direct sunlight, we ended up at the bottom of the hill at a restored palace. Most of the Casbah has fallen into disrepair (many houses are being desperately held up by makeshift scaffolding consisting of planks of wood), but the palace in the lower Casbah, which sits smack dab on the water, has been turned into a museum. The tile work inside was amazing (the blue ones came from the Netherlands!):

One final discovery in the palace – during the renovations, they discovered a Roman bath!

The Roman Empire of course extended into Algeria once upon a time, and there are apparently Roman ruins scattered around the coastal areas of the country. Much more to explore over the next 2 years!

After the tour was complete, our van picked us up at the bottom of the hill and drove us back up to the top, where we had a great but massive lunch consisting of some traditional Algerian standbys, like borek, chorba, and rechta noodles with chicken. After topping it all off with sweet mint tea and fruit, I was ridiculously stuffed and was very happy to get back in the van and head home to crash!