Ancient fortified cities, Roman ruins and the sands of the Sahara make Africa’s largest country an undiscovered tourist giant that hides in plain sight.
From the open roof of the watchtower, above the labyrinth of narrow alleys and closed rooftops, Ghardaïa appears as a rolling tableau of jumbled pastel cubes.
The only hints of modernity are the Tannoy speakers projecting from the mud-walled minarets at the top of each hill. Otherwise, we could be looking at a scene from any century in the last 10.
Despite its proximity to Europe and its vast presence on the North African coast, roughly the size of Alaska and Texas combined, Algeria and many of its most spectacular sights are little known to travelers outside its borders.
“Algeria is one of the most difficult places in the world to enter and one of the least visited,” says Andrew Farrand, senior fellow for North Africa at the Atlantic Council, a foreign affairs think tank. “Of the approximately two million official tourist arrivals each year, the majority are members of the Algerian diaspora returning home to visit family. Only a handful are foreign visitors.”
For those willing to negotiate the bureaucratic hurdles to get here, Algeria is arguably one of the most rewarding destinations to be reached by short-haul flight from mainland Europe. Today, vitally, it is also considered safe and relatively stable. Most foreign governments only advise against traveling to their borders with Libya and Niger.
Legacy of French colonialism
The origins of Algeria’s anonymity lie in the recent past. Between 1830 and 1962 it was the most prized possession of the French empire. On the same subject : Hispanic Heritage Month 2022 – United States Department of State. Independence came in 1962, but only after a bloody eight-year war between Algerian insurgents and French settlers that claimed between 400,000 and a million lives.
“France’s barbaric efforts to destroy Algerian culture engendered deep anti-Western sentiment,” says Adel Hamaizia, a visiting professor at Harvard University. “Afterward, the newly independent country was highly motivated to rebuild and protect its religious and cultural identity.”
In the 1990s, as tourism to neighboring Morocco and Tunisia surged, Algeria was plunged into what its people call the “Black Decade,” when an Islamic insurgency instigated a protracted and bloody civil war. Anti-government protests toppled the administration of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April 2019.
Developing tourism
One legacy of this internal turmoil is a prevailing attitude towards foreign visitors that is, if not genuinely hostile, then at least indifferent. The visa application process is Byzantine. Tourism promotion is non-existent. During my spring field trip, the only guide I could get was a second-hand Berlitz pocket guide published in 1990.
The government’s lack of interest in tourism, many observers argue, is due to the economic dominance of hydrocarbons. Algeria’s oil and gas sector comprises 20 percent of its GDP. Read also : Kune Food closes down almost a year after Kenya started up. Tourism, on the other hand, represents barely 0.1 percent.
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“The oil curse infects everything,” says Farrand. “The industry gives the Algerian state the money it needs to avoid the hard work of developing more complex sectors like tourism.” According to recent reports, the surge in oil and gas prices as a result of the war in Ukraine has meant that Algeria exceeded its export targets for the first half of 2022 by 70 per cent.
Wonders hidden in plain sight
However, the rewards for coming here are many. Algeria is, in many ways, a giant hiding in plain sight. In the strip of fertile land that hugs its Mediterranean coast are historic cities such as Constantine, Oran and the capital Algiers. Read also : As Russia and the United States Seek Influence in Africa, There Are Strategic Pitfalls. Ancient Roman outposts like Djemila and Timgad (both UNESCO World Heritage Sites) are among the best-preserved archaeological destinations in North Africa. To the south, inside the Sahara, the seas of dunes of the Gran Ergs collide with the sandstone massifs of Hoggar and Tassili n’Ajjer.
“We’ve had record interest this fall, but you can still spend days in Algeria without seeing another tourist,” says Omar Zahafi, whose tour company, Fancyellow, caters almost exclusively to foreign visitors. “When we visit Roman ruins and clients ask why there aren’t any other people, I like to joke that I reserved the site especially for them.”
Few places embody the tension between Algeria’s insularity and its tourism potential like Ghardaïa, the ancestral home of the Mozabites, Algeria’s fourth largest Berber tribe. A sprawling oasis town, 380 miles south of Algiers on the Trans Sahara highway, it is a place where Algerian life is more traditional.
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It’s early afternoon in El Atteuf, one of five ksours, or hilltop citadels, collectively known as “the Pentapolis.” The five walled cities, once separate entities, have long since coalesced into a labyrinthine conurbation that winds along the desiccated valley of the M’Zab River. (Ghardaïa is both the name of the largest citadel and an unofficial abbreviation for the entire region.) The French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir once compared it to “a cubist painting, beautifully constructed.”
Like most places in Algeria, Ghardaïa is best explored with a guide. In fact, in the ksours themselves, one is compulsory. Rules set by religious councils, which uphold a strict form of Ibadi Islam, allow outsiders in only at certain times of the day, and only in the company of a local chaperone. Some married women wear the haik, a white garment that is wrapped around the body and head, leaving only one eye exposed. Motorized transportation is prohibited. Garbage is still collected by donkeys.
My guide, Hassissane Hadjsmael, a butcher with a mischievous air, leads us through the quiet alleys. In the middle of the day, when most of the valley’s inhabitants take a siesta, the streets are populated only by herds of timid children.
The architectural consistency of the citadel is the result of ancient norms of design and decoration. Up close, you can see that the walls are made of clay and then dotted with palm fronds to deflect the sun’s heat.
Hadjsmael gestures us through a low door and into a model interior now preserved as an unofficial museum. Inside is a pillared quadrangle with an open roof. The alcoves on each side are decked out with rugs. Most of the houses in the old towns have a similar footprint, although with some concessions to the 21st century. “My place is similar,” says Hadjsmael. “But I have a big plasma TV.”
Change comes slowly to Ghardaïa, but it comes. On the outskirts are the palm trees, groves of date palms whose fruits were once the backbone of the local economy. Now, their old summer houses are being converted into guest houses.
In one of them, I find travelers from Ohio sitting in a Berber tent set up in a shaded courtyard. A libertine musician in a dark green Tuareg turban plays a lute under an olive tree full of fruit.
“You can tell a lot of people in Algeria are eager to share their country with the world,” says Katelyn Jarvis, an investment adviser in Cincinnati. “Almost every interaction we’ve had has resulted in an invitation to visit people’s villages or to share a meal in their homes.”
Tourism is in its infancy here, but hospitality is instinctive.
“I recently got my license to start hosting foreigners,” guesthouse owner Rostom Labchek tells me. “I hope more will come.”
IF YOU GO
Many operators in Europe and Africa can organize guided tours of Algeria’s top sights, including ancient towns in the Sahara and Roman ruins. Companies that specialize in North Africa itineraries include Algeria Travel and Tours and Wild Frontiers.
Most tour companies can help you apply for a tourist visa, which you will need to enter the country.
Henry Wismayer is a writer based in London. Follow him on Twitter.
