Twin minarets
An imposing facade.
Rachid Hamatou — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dan Sloan — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Zakaria1994zznedjai — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dan Sloan — CC BY-SA 2.0
One of Algeria's best-known and most symbolic mosques, at the foot of the Casbah, built in the Ottoman era in the early seventeenth century and rebuilt by Hassan Pasha in the late eighteenth century with its imposing facade, twin minarets and marble columns. The mosque carries deep national memory: after the French occupation of Algeria in 1830 the authorities turned it into a cathedral, which it remained for more than a century until it became a mosque again at Algeria's independence in 1962, when the famous Friday prayer of independence was held there. The mosque underwent a thorough restoration lasting years and reopened in 2018, recovering its original beauty with fine Ottoman and Andalusian ornament, its high dome, columns and arches and its chandeliers, and it is now among the capital's most beautiful sights. Entry is free outside prayer times, in modest dress with women covering their hair. It pairs with a walk in the Casbah, whose lanes begin directly behind it.
An imposing facade.
Ottoman and Andalusian.
Friday prayer of 1962.
Place Ben Badis, at the foot of the Casbah
The French occupation turned it into a cathedral after 1830, and it became a mosque again at independence in 1962.
