, Heaven on Earth

One cannot really know Algeria without trying to experience, at least once, the extraordinary encounter with its Sahara. It is not a mere question of geography.. The Sahara is a place where reality disguises itself in myth. It is also a place where one can experience the extraordinary adventure of self-discovery..

Great South. The Hoggar One discovers himself in peaks culminate at 3,000 the process of discovering. meters. Not far from here, The sky is so pure, one at Chott Melgin, we go cannot get over the fact that down to 30 meters beneath it is inhabited by so many the level of the sea. stars. The sweet elegance of The memory is like a palm In the spontanious the dunes offers an ever- tree with an endless give columns changing landscape. There and take are also those marvelous oases that they could be The Algerian South sometimes taken for constitutes a flat immensity mirages. where the wind reigns like a master. On the plains of A geographer, who was also pebbles, the tireless wind a poet, has compared the forms, rounds off and In the heart of Sahara, Algerian territory to an selects the minerals a passage towards the amphora of which the break remains. Weaken fragments infiniteinfinite dips into the Mediterranean are taken away. The only and the leg lays on the sand. ones that subsist to the ground are the heaviest and Which country could offer the sharpest. such a diversity? Here is the sea, "this quit roof where The sand flies, thickens and doves walk", and here is the turns into cloud. Among mountain dark flank, which the wind, the grains become the snow covers up in In the language of the abrasive and continue dunes winter. On the immensity eroding the stones of the of the sand-hill, the oases primary ground. put a green stain. In the sand-hills the sand The South's accumulates and make supple landscape: massive Magnificent Sandhills shoulders, full curves that have the affecting beauty of Geography and history a human body. have made of Algeria a ...and...and inin thethe stonesstones ofof book with diverse chapters. So, don't be mistaken! The architecture A two-sided country: South is all but a smooth The Mediterranean side surface. faces the austerity of the Hills, steep slopes and The Tuareg volcanic embossments claw people have the infinite. In the sky, the not all wind takes out flocks of become clouds for an airing, as a sedentary reflection of hills and workmen. valleys, which form the Lots of them Algerian ground. have answered Visiting the cities of Algeria again the call is certainly being involved of the space - the in the reading of history, and become Capital of Light punctuated by antique, guides, Islamic, Turkish and creating Mediterranean sometimes their own monuments. Algiers, tourism agency. Go Annaba, Bejaia, , with them on the track, Constantine, , and you will have an Ghardaia, , adventure to share. It is for the Timimoun, , and Mediterranea many others are cities that The Beauty of the n Sea that the offer visitors unsuspected balconies have resources of discovery. If North been invented they go outside the cities been invented they will find archeological treasures wherever they go. In Algeria, nature is a sort of immense rectangle generous. The palm-tree is in contact with the In the Tassilli and the the most obvious symbol. along Hoggar, in the very heart It makes the magnificence 1,200 kilometers. In this of the imposing Sahara, lies of the oases. It is loaded rectangle, there are two the biggest open-air with dates and protects mountain chains: the Tellic museum in the world with with its shadow the Atlas that trails its slender thousands of engravings gardens where fruits and steeples along side the sea and rock paintings tracing vegetables are cultivated. and the Saharan Atlas, back the sources of which pinpoints the humanity. The vegetation is rich of passage to the fantastic diverse species: citrus, fruit- Sahara. In between, lies the The adventure throughout trees and vines in plain, High-Plateau, trust upward the Great South has become pines, over the littoral, by multi-millennial force, a peaceful, but it always magnificent croaks, and universe of the steppe and requires real qualities and Aleppo pines in the the nomadic tradition. some care. The South first mountain. History has left her reveals itself to silence- countless vestiges as a lovers and to those trained In the North the game is witness of different in walking long distances. abundant enough to make civilizational contribution To eat frugally, to sleep in the hunter's joy: hares and with Phoenician, vandal the open air, to accept the boars. Discovering the and Byzantine imprints, training of guide constitute north of Algeria is going traces of Spanish an essential human towards a multi- incursions, the impressive experience in a bosom of dimensional space. presence of the antique universe of untouched Roma with entire cities purity. The first, of course, is that well-preserved such as of the relief which delimits Timgad and Djemila. necessity of the fresh During her long history, water and the green Algeria has gathered grass. Do you want to populations of diverse drive away tiredness? origins with a strong The Algerian always personality. An old cordially appears to be tradition of resistance the antidote to an against the occupier has excessive fatigue. In a indeed forged one of the country that knows the dominant features of the value of time, we avoid Algerian character. jostling the passers-by. Minarets, celestial At least, we have to extentions At least, sovereign and deserve the reserved independent Algeria is welcome. In Algeria, the The North of Algeria well convinced that her rites of hospitality expresses, from an prosperity depends on express the thankfulness amazing background, all human wealth and its of the one who receives the extraordinary cohesion. In the market the honor of a visit. cultural and spiritual or in town, Algerian has foaming of the always been open- . Mediterranean area minded persons whose Delicacy of a present is together with its African hearty generosity meets covered discreetly and and Oriental quick wits. offered to the guest when confluences. leaving the meal. The A proverb reminds us teapot is empty and A Nuance of Diversity that "three things drive embers are extinguished, away the spleen of the but you are happy then. The proverb has become heart of man: the water, All that and even more real and the wish has the pasture, and the are not meant for a come true. In the crucible smiling faces". Modern simple trip or a tour, but of the Algerian nation, living has perhaps put really for a moment of the inhabitants have aside the essential your life. multiplied. Besides, the succeeding intercourses between populations have ended up with an ethnic mosaic.

Jewel's tradition still alive ChasedChased throughthrough time...time...