So close and yet so far. These are the words that occur when I stand on my balcony in the El Aurassi and watch freighter and ferries in the harbor below. The view of Algiers from his most important hotel is so wide – the city that flows to the east along the silver Mediterranean – that I forget for a moment where I am and how short my trip was to achieve it.
Two and a half hours to be precise. This is the time it takes to fly from London Gatwick to Algeria’s Kenel capital -in a planned British Airways service, whose route is so familiar with Mallorca practically pasture during his relegation. When I arrived in Algiers, I am even further north as Marbella and Gibraltar.
But when “so close” is neither questioned nor “so far”. Because in real terms it is an odyssey to travel to Algeria from Great Britain. So much that only a few of us try. The data is stained, but in the region of 6,000 British travelers the country visit the country annually. In order to bring this number in the context, 327,000 British demanded neighboring Tunisia last year – while Morocco and Egypt, these twin -giant North African holidays, were drawn to one million British tourists in 2024.
There are various reasons for this huge statistical deficiency. One is a reputation for danger and unrest that was fake during the malignant civil war, which between 1992 and 2002 killed up to 150,000 Algerians, but has no relationship to the current state of stability (apart from the border zones, the foreign office of Algeria was safe).
Another is a visa process that is not unaffordable or particularly expensive (£ 80), and can take up to eight weeks-room of simple beach breaks of flies and flop. But then Algeria has no real interest in ensuring this specific holiday market. Despite 1000 miles of Mediterranean coast, it rarely promotes as a travel destination. It is not the case that the country is closed for leisure visitors; She doesn’t need it. Tourism makes up a tiny part of an economy in which oil and gas make up 25 percent of GDP.
A source of bright fascination
And yet Algeria is a source of bright fascination for those who like to explore: the 10th largest country in the world and the largest in Africa that spreads for almost a million (919,595) square miles. It is larger than Saudi Arabia than Mexico and Iran. His northern edges like the med kissing, but its southern borders are with Mauritania, Mali and Niger. And in these distant areas it is a sand vertebra; The lower 80 percent of the Algerian land mass are swallowed by the Sahara.
Almost 10 percent of the population in Algeria call the capital of Algiers Home – Universal Images Group Editorial
This huge scale or hard attitude does not make it an impossible suggestion. You only need a guide. In my case, these are adventure specialists Wild Frontiers (one of the few tour operators based in British)-and in particular M’Hamed Gueraini, a capital city boy whose understanding of the history, politics, culture and geography of his nation is clear and remarkable. Over the course of 12 days, he will lead his group of curious travelers – there are eight of us in the group; Americans and Australians as well as British – on an odyssey of 2,000 miles and countless centuries.
The colors of the Casbah
He doesn’t have to go far at first to introduce us to his house. Algiers extensive and winding and protects almost 10 percent of the national population (47 million), has a touch of familiarity for everyone who has hiked in North Africa. His Berberkern from the 10th century, the Casbah, gives Echos von Marrakech in his weird streets and paved alleys. In the general absence of tourists, this medieval labyrinth runs out its day without a touch of hard selling.
The gentrification is not available. In fact, many crumbling houses in this UNESCO listed enclave could not be correct. But M’Hamed wakes the thought that the Casbah shone with Boutique -Srides of a decade. “When I bought a house to renovate here,” he says, “I would lose my money. The value would continue to decrease.”
In the Algiers Casbah there is a clear lack of tourists – Getty
The rest of the center is much more sophisticated, which bears all trademarks of Algeria 132 years (1830-1962) under French control. The main post office, which was completed in 1910, merges Gallic and Arabic architectural styles in its front facade and the built -in arches. Some of the long boulevards that channel traffic could be in Haussmann’s Paris. The Hamma Botanical Garden was one of the immediate innovations introduced by the arriving regime. His 94 hectare area was opened in 1832. There are boulangeries that sell croissants and French is widespread as a second language.
The bloody riposte to these colonial reverberation is the martyrdism monument (Maqam Echahid), which on a prominent hill three miles south of the Casbah rises to 302 feet (91 m). Its three high -towering concrete curves are visible wherever they are in the metropolis. The museum below contains the brutality of French rule and shows the steadfastly violent struggle for independence (1954-1962).
The monument of Algiers’ striking martyr is visible from the capital – Universal Images Group Editorial
However, if it is not difficult to understand the trouble that clearly still exists in relation to this dark time under a foreign boot, it is also difficult to avoid that France has contributed to forming Northern Algeria into something nice. In fact, there is no better word to describe Konstantin – the third largest point on the national map, 250 miles east of the capital, whose sobriquet “City of Bridges” hardly covers the splendor of the scene.
Here, eight elegant bridges include the Labyrinthin Canyon, which is produced by the Rhumel river with the regional limestone. The Sidi M’cid Suspension Bridge, which was produced in 1912 by the French engineer Ferdinand Arnodin, is a joy; The Salah Bey Bridge, although it was built by Brazilian and Danish companies, has a beautiful almost uprisings to the Millau-Viaduct.
The romantic footprints of the old Rome
However, it was a much earlier series of invaders who left the best footprints. The Roman presence in North Africa has hardly become undocumented – while Leptis Magna and Sabratha, the jewels Libya, have been spanned for over a decade beyond the safe reach, Algeria’s old ruins are accessible that are waiting to be appreciated.
There are three key points within a radius of 75 miles from Konstantin. Nobody is overcrowded. Tiddis, a defensive bastion, lies in a hill, whereby their fastening in their monitoring of the levels is still in the eye. Djémila (Cuicul, as it was called) is compared to the temple of Septimius Severus, who appeared in 193 AD due to the first Roman emperor of the African birth (he breathed his first in Leptis Magna, 145).
Timgad’s theater remains very well preserved like a large part of the old site – Chris Leadbeater
The real miracle, however, is Timgad, which in his reputation is evading “Pompeii of North Africa”. Leaving in the 8th century, but only seen from European eyes a millennium (that of Scottish discoverer James Bruce in 1765), her majesty was also preserved by anonymity like the counterpart by Vesuvius Asche. I feel through in the golden sunlight of a Sunday afternoon and feel amazed and privileged. It is not just the remains themselves, the drama: the theater, the massive temple of Jupiter, the rocks left by car wheels leave the flag stones. There are almost no other tourists.
The rituals and rules of Berber’s life
Despite all their legendary inventory, the Romans made it little further into “Algeria”, and through the discouraging comb of the Aures Mountains – and through the heat and dust of the Sahara beyond. Our own progress to the south is faster and easy to be delayed by the vision of the Ghoufi Canyon for hours, shimmers its sandstone flanks in the heat hike, whereby the Abiod River only offers the slightest proposal of the water, since it feeds the date palpal palm Grove far below the point of view.
From here we plunge into another world. The five KSOUR (paved villages) from Ghardaia form the spiritual home of the Mozabitian people, an ethnic Berber group that has inhabited this dry region since the 11th century.
The marketplace of Ghardaia, the central center of the M’ZAB Valley – iStockphoto
About 500 miles lie between these hardy citadels and Constantine, but the journey is a journey through time as well as the asphalt advancement. How else can you explain a day in your middle? While Ksar Ghardaia, the central “Hub”, has a vague relationship with the modernity on his busy market, Beni Isguen has been tied to the long -term centuries. A place rituals and rules. Life in his nest of the streets is deeply conservative, in religion and clothing. His women are wrapped in white surroundings – and while a piece of the face remains visible from the unmarried, everyone must be covered by those who have exchanged the vows.
Photos of the city dwellers are prohibited. A local guide always accompanies us. And yet the atmosphere never feels undesirable; Even in the cemeteries at the summit of every citadel, on which the dead enjoy a powerful panorama – a universe of rock and sand.
A big sky for a large country
We continue in this frayed landscape; 400 southwestern miles.
Even then, Timimoun is not the heart of the desert. Not even nearby. But they can feel the weight and cruelty of the Sahara in this lonely city – in the blackened remains of old fortresses on the outskirts; In his frail climate systems that gasp under an enemy sun.
Much of southern alleries are located within the Sahara – Luis Cossen
And in a different epic perspective. Last night we drive into the dunes – the soft, rounded dunes of the popular imagination – from 4WD to admire the embers of the day. M’Hamed plays the last valley from nomadic paths; Mint tea is brewed on a fire. But nothing can distract from the horizon if he flickers orange; A big sky for a large country. “So far away” in all his fame.
How it works
Wild Frontiers (020 3925 6750) offers a 12-day escort tour. From £ 3,295 per person (flights extra). Twelve departures are currently planned for 2026. British Airways (0344 4930787) flies from 226 GBP to Algier von Gatwick.
