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Focus · Capital & political heart
Algiers
“A city between sea and power, where history meets the present.”
Mediterranean port and capital — the political and cultural center of the country.
Geography & meaning
A white amphitheatre rising from the Mediterranean — a bay, a Casbah, and a long staircase down to the sea.
Cultural meaning
Where chaabi music was born in the Casbah, where journalists, students and exiles still meet, and where the country negotiates its modern face.
Historical significance
Capital of the Regency of Algiers for three centuries, stage of the Battle of Algiers in 1956–57, and birthplace of the 5 July 1962 independence.
Connected stories
5 July 1962
The day a colony of 132 years became a country again — and the bay of Algiers filled with green-and-white flags.
Curator's note
“Algiers the white — a city that looks at the sea and dares it to forget her.”
— Museum curator