elsslots:
some could be improved. Especially the Kasbah of Algiers (looks like one from the 1950s)
But what do you want your lead photo on Algiers to "say" about the city? From the experience of our visit in 2012 I can identify somewhat with this quote which, although it related to the 1960s and a far more troubled period, still contained more than an essence of "truth" based on my experiences - "
The sun smiles down on Algiers - but the inhabitants do not smile back. It is a surly city, harrowed by the stresses of over-population and under-employment; with the architecture of Cannes, but the atmosphere of Aberdeen!....." (Alistair Horne)
I have already provided an archetypal "casbah alleyway" photo with my review and have plenty more. But, If you want narrow alleyways with scurrying inhabitants dressed in Arab garments - then why not stick with the B+W example you currently have? If you want the later reality of vast areas of tumbled down buildings - I can also provide a few of those.
Or what about the "architecture of Cannes"? The map of the inscribed Casbah "surprisingly" (since there is absolutely NO mention of such aspects anywhere in the UNESCO site information) shows that it includes large areas of colonial buildings including the magnificent "
Boulevarde Erneste Che Guevara" (Originally "Boulevard de l'Impératrice" and, later "Boulevard de la République") running along the waterfront. Or
apartment blocks which could be situated in a French provincial town ...or even Paris itself? Or the wonderful neo-Moorish "
Grande Poste d'Alger" from 1911?
Or do we need a few "mosques"? I can provide ones of the
Ketchaoua Mosque - built in the Ottoman period of the 17th C and said by Wiki to be "
noted for its unique fusion of Moorish and Byzantine architecture" (unfortunately looking rather the worse for wear and surrounded by scaffolding and barriers) or the more overtly North African
Djamaʽa el Djedid.
Or, at a smaller level, what about indigenous architectural details of doorways of humble dwellings, hammams and even
the occasional palace? I can find a range from the "decrepit" upwards ..... even edging towards the "magnifiicent". But the latter wouldn't be "typical" from my experience.
"
Choose the one which encapsulates Algiers for you" you might say! I would probably choose the collapsed buildings! Perhaps my visit from 2012 is already "history" and Algiers might have managed to spruce itself up - it has, after all, found the money to build the "Great Mosque" (outside the inscribed area!) - the World's 3rd largest after Mecca and Medina but having the World's tallest minaret!
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