The courtyard
Tiles and fountain.
Rachid Hamatou — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Remi Jouan — CC BY 4.0 · Rachid Hamatou — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Reda Kerbush — CC BY-SA 4.0
A national museum of prehistory and ethnography in an elegant late-Ottoman palace in the Maghrebi style, with an inner courtyard clad in colourful tiles, a fountain, arches and a garden, so visitors enjoy the building as much as the exhibits. The museum shows the tools and remains of early humans in Algeria and North Africa and copies of the famous Tassili rock paintings of the Sahara, and its best-known treasure is the remains of Queen Tin Hinan, the legendary Tuareg queen, with her jewellery and funerary goods found in the Hoggar. The ethnography wings show traditional Algerian dress from different regions, Kabyle and Tuareg silver jewellery, musical instruments, household objects and carpets, painting a rich picture of the diversity of Algerian culture. Tickets are a token fee, and the museum usually closes one day a week, so check hours before visiting. It is in a quiet district near central Algiers.
Tiles and fountain.
Tuareg queen.
Kabyle and Tuareg.
Rue Franklin Roosevelt, Algiers
Prehistoric finds, the remains of Queen Tin Hinan, and traditional Algerian dress and jewellery.