Showing posts with label Algeria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Algeria. Show all posts

Sunday, May 12, 2013

WHS from Algeria

Now i can really say i've these Unesco sites from Algeria. The Kasbah of Algiers was inscribed in 1992, Djémila and Tassili were both added to the list 10 years earlier, 1982.  

 Bakhti - Image D'Algerie
The Kasbah of Algiers is an outstanding example of a historic Maghreb city having had extensive influence on town-planning in the western part of the Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa.
Indeed, located on the Mediterranean coast, the site was inhabited at least from the 6th century BC when a Phoenician trading post was established there.  The term Kasbah, that originally designated the highest point of the medina during the Zirid era, today applies to the ensemble of the old town of El Djazair, within the boundaries marked by the ramparts and built at the end of the 16th century, dating back to the Ottoman period.  
In this living environment where nearly 50,000 people reside, very interesting traditional houses, palaces, hammams, mosques and various souks are still conserved, the urban form of which bears witness to an effect of stratification of several styles in a complex and original system that has adapted remarkably well to a very hilly and uneven site. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/565
 Bakhti - Image D'Algerie
Tassili n'Ajjer is a vast plateau in south-east Algeria at the borders of Libya, Niger and Mali, covering an area of 72,000 sq. km.  The exceptional density of paintings and engravings, and the presence of many prehistoric vestiges, are remarkable testimonies to Prehistory. From 10,000 BC to the first centuries of our era, successive peoples left many archaeological remains, habitations, burial mounds and enclosures which have yielded abundant lithic and ceramic material. However, it is the rock art (engravings and paintings) that have made Tassili world famous as from 1933, the date of its discovery.  15,000 engravings have been identified to date.
The property is also of great geological and aesthetic interest:  the panorama of geological formations with "rock forests" of eroded sandstone resembles a strange lunar landscape. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/179


Bakhti - Image D'Algerie
The site of Djémila is located 50 km north-east of the town of Sétif. Known under its antique name Cuicul, Djémila is an establishment of an ancient Roman colony founded during the reign of Nerva (96 - 98 A.D.). The Roman town occupied a singular defensive position. Cuicul is one of the flowers of Roman architecture in North Africa.  Remarkably adapted to the  constraints of the mountainous site, on a rocky spur which spreads at an altitude of 900 m, between the wadi Guergour and the wadi Betame, two mountain torrents, the town has its own Senate and Forum. Around the beginning of the 3rd century, it expanded beyond its ramparts with the creation of the Septimius Severus Temple, the Arch of Caracalla, the market and the civil basilica. The site has also been marked by Christianity in the form of several cult buildings: a cathedral, a church and its baptistry are considered among the biggest of the Paleochristian period. The site of Djémila comprises an impressive collection of mosaic pavings, illustrating mythological tales and scenes of daily life. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/191

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Algiers - Algeria

One more algerian card, not a TN, and this one was sent by Sapic. The card shows the Grand Post Office building and the Monument of the Martyrs in Algiers, the capital and largest city of the country.  
Called El-Behdja or Alger la Blanche ("Algiers the White") for the glistening white of its buildings as seen rising up from the sea, Algiers is situated on the west side of a bay of the Mediterranean Sea. 

The Grand Post Office building, built in 1910 by Voinot and Tondoire in neo-Moorish style, is located in the centre of Algiers.
The Martyrs' Memorial is an iconic concrete monument commemorating the Algerian war for independence. The monument was opened in 1982 on the 20th anniversary of Algeria's independence. It is fashioned in the shape of three standing palm leaves which shelter the "Eternal Flame" beneath. At the edge of each palm leaf stands a statue of a soldier, each representing a stage of Algeria's struggle. - in: wikipedia

Algeria TN Unesco cards

All of these have been sent by Paula. I already have 2 of theses sites, Tipasa and Mzab Valley.

Photo by Yves Jalabert
This is the madrasah of Algiers Casbah.  The Casbah is specifically the citadel of Algiers in Algeria and the traditional quarter clustered around it.
The Casbah of Algiers is founded on the ruins of old Icosium. It was a small city which, built on a hill, goes down towards the sea, divided in two: the High city and the Low city. - in: wikipedia

 Photo by PhR61
Timgad was a Roman colonial town in the Aurès Mountains of Algeria, founded by the Emperor Trajan around AD 100. The full name of the town was Colonia Marciana Ulpia Traiana Thamugadi. Trajan commemorated the city after his mother Marcia, father Marcus Ulpius Traianus and his eldest sister Ulpia Marciana.
Timgad was inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. - in: wikipedia
Photo by Keith Miller
Tipasa is a Berber-speaking town on the coast of Algeria, capital of the Tipasa province. The modern town, founded in 1857, is remarkable chiefly for its sandy beach, and ancient ruins. - in: wikipedia

Photo by wikipedia
 Beni Hammad Fort, also called Al Qal'a of Beni Hammad (Arabic: قلعة بني حماد‎) is a ruined, fortified palatine city in Algeria. It served as the first capital of the Hammadid dynasty. It is located in the mountains northeast of M'Sila, at an elevation of 1,418 meters, and receives abundant water from the surrounding mountains. Beni Hammad Fort is near the town of Maadid (aka Maadhid), about 225 km southeast of Algiers, in the Maghreb.
In 1980, it was inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, and described as "an authentic picture of a fortified Muslim city". - in: wikipedia

The Mzab is a region of the northern Sahara. The Mzab Valley was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982, as an intact example of traditional human habitat perfectly adapted to the environment. - in: wikipedia

Tassili n'Ajjer is a mountain range in the Algerian section of the Sahara Desert.
The range is also noted for its prehistoric rock art and other ancient archaeological sites, dating from Neolithic times when the local climate was more moist, with savannah rather than desert. - in: wikipedia

Monday, February 15, 2010

Ghardaïa - Algeria

This card is another gift from a postcrosser i met in Zurich, Verena "vre". It's my second card from Algeria.

"Ghardaïa is the capital city of Ghardaïa Province, Algeria. It is the traditional heart of the M'zab valley, home of the Ibadi sect in Algeria, and has preserved its original medieval architecture remarkably well; the valley of which it forms a part is an official World Heritage Site. Ghardaïa is renowned for its coarse goat hair carpets, generally with simple geometric patterns in black and white." - in: wikipedia

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Tipasa - Algeria

"On the shores of the Mediterranean, Tipasa was an ancient Punic trading-post conquered by Rome and turned into a strategic base for the conquest of the kingdoms of Mauritania. It comprises a unique group of Phoenician, Roman, palaeochristian and Byzantine ruins alongside indigenous monuments such as the Kbor er Roumia, the great royal mausoleum of Mauritania. " - in http://whc.unesco.org
The Roman Ruins of Tipasa are an Unesco whs since 1982.
This is another card that i bought in Lisbon during the Expo 98.