Algeria is beginning to gain a reputation as a one-of-a-kind destination among foreign tourists. Closed for too long for mass tourism, the country is increasingly becoming a popular destination for many regulars and travel professionals.
This is the case of several influencers, but also travel journalists who took the first flight to Algeria to explore this destination. Like the latter, Mark Stratton, a journalist and editor from London who did not hesitate to pack his bags to discover this mysterious country of Africa.
When Marque decided to travel to Algeria for the first time, he wasn’t sure what to expect. Indeed, he was far from imagining a country rich in history and culture.
Mark Stratton: “Algiers evokes memories of Marseille”
Moreover, Mark Stratton even wrote an article and a podcast in the English travel magazine Wanderlust Travel. In the latter, the journalist recounts his stay in the country and paints a picture of an Algeria “which refuses to be defined by anything other than itself”.
Park’s starting point was the capital Algiers, in his article he describes the capital as a city of hills and coffee. He says that during his stay, he left his hotel to go and have his coffee with a croissant in a corner of the capital. A city that reminds him of memories of Marseille: its art deco architecture, noisy traffic, lively marinas…
Another landscape that seduced the British journalist is the one that emerges at Friday prayer time, when everyone is rushing to the mosques. In the heart of the capital, families browse the hanging date stalls, traditional outfits, while their children enthusiastically chase pigeons.
Algeria represents a historical and cultural mosaic
In Djemila, he says he saw a sublime spectacle at his museum. These include a Roman mosaic, illustrating the license of one of the characters of that time. A work that he qualifies as a “real spectacle” which invited him to push several reflections on Algeria and to take a greater interest in the country.
For this traveller, Algeria constitutes a mosaic composed of both its history and its culture and illustrating a sublime spectacle: from the weather-worn Roman ruins to the Ottoman mosques, passing by its whipped sand dunes. For Mark, Algeria is a land where the echoes of the greatest empires in history still resonate in the desert winds. But also is a country where every corner presents a unique blend of history and culture.
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