{"id":47254,"date":"2022-03-02T15:00:08","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T15:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jazairhope.org\/?p=47254"},"modified":"2022-03-02T21:49:39","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T21:49:39","slug":"the-mediterranean-country-with-sun-sand-and-ancient-ruins-but-no-tourists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jazairhope.org\/en\/the-mediterranean-country-with-sun-sand-and-ancient-ruins-but-no-tourists\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mediterranean country with sun, sand and ancient ruins \u2013 but no tourists"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There’s scant desire to promote tourism in this North African country but there are big rewards for the intrepid few who venture there<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m lost in the Kasbah and my nostrils are flaring with the aromas of strawberries, incense, baguettes and diesel fumes.<\/p>\n

Like an Escher painting with socialist credentials, it is a maze of ginnels, passageways, alleys and dead ends, with high, flaking walls, most of them filled with murals of the fallen Leftist heroes of this nation; all but forgotten to the outside world but crucial to the story of why the Star of Islam rules supreme here in Algeria, rather than the tricolour.<\/p>\n

I stop to rest as the shimmering Mediterranean sun elevates itself high above rooftops scattered with faded khal rugs drying on cast iron railings, rusting satellite dishes and indolent cats.<\/p>\n

A kindly artisan beckons me into his workshop. Around him in the spartan room are remnants of anachronistic equipment he uses (though not so frequently these days) to make anything from bedsteads to picture frames.<\/p>\n

His long, dune-coloured kamis billows behind him as we climb yet more stairs. Beckoning me onto the roof of his dwelling, he guides me, in silence, towards a kettle where he diligently pours me a tiny cup of fang-meltingly sweet tea.<\/p>\n

Gazing out over the city\u2019s rooftops, he breaks the silence. \u2018If you were here in 1962,\u2019 he tells me. \u2018The view from here would be exactly the same.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Algeria<\/p>\n

Algeria borders the Mediterranean yet the country receives few international tourists\u00a0<\/span>CREDIT<\/span>: ZedamNabil Photography\/Moment RF<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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An enthralling city break<\/h4>\n

Algiers, as well as offering a trip back in time, might just be the most enthralling Mediterranean city break there is. It has cuisine to rival Beirut, history that outstrips Valletta, sunshine the equal of Malaga and hospitality warm enough to melt the hearts of hardened misanthropes. What\u2019s more, it sits on the same latitude as Sicily and Granada, making the flight time from Heathrow a barely believable two hours and 40 minutes. Yet despite all this, tourists are scarce enough that your very presence turns heads; virtually nobody comes to Algeria.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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