Destination guide exploring one of the least known countries on our planet - the People's Republic of Algeria.

Destination guide exploring one of the least known countries on our planet - the People's Republic of Algeria.

Ch1. Algiers
An exploration of the country's capital, Algiers - its architecture, both French and Neo-Mauresque. This is epitomised by the glorious Grande Poste post office building - its outstanding mosques and occasional churches. Local Algerois Djihad Mahamdi tours the Tuareg-inspired Cathedral of Sacre Coeur, while fellow guide Nehad Benz explores the Ottoman-refined Casbah which is awash with pretty fountains and sumptuous palaces. A day trip to Tipasa shows glimpses of a wealthy Roman life in North Africa, while back in the Casbah, historian Boualem Benamirouche retraces the steps of the infamous Battle of Algiers, which turned the tide of war of independence.

Ch2. The Historic Hinterland
The coastal and hinterland cities built by a prosperous Mediterranean trade dating back to Phoenician sailors. In Oran, resident Zaki Souffi goes shopping in the Jedida market. He visits the home of the city's most eminent emigre, Yves Saint Laurent and has a local snack of karantika. He tours the old Bey palace before climbing the Mountain of Lions for a nose around Fort Santa Cruz, an impregnable Spanish fortress during its war with the Ottoman Empire. Tlemcen boasts the wonders of the Mechouar Palace, while historian Amina Miri Hana tours the fortress city of El Mansourah. Climbing over the Aures mountains, cameras glimpse the sprawling Roman settlement of Timgad in Batna before arriving at Constantine, an ancient Numidian city perched on a rocky outcrop that overlooks the Rhumel Gorge.

Ch3. The Sahara
A 1,200-mile trek from the "Door of the Sahara" in the ancient Berber settlement of Ghouffi to Assekrem, which literally means `The end of the world", situated in the southernmost point of Algeria's Sahara. The great desert is an arid but varied landscape where cultures, religious and nomadic, have adapted to the unforgiving climate over thousands of years. We tour the Berber castles of Timimoun and the circular Mozabite cities of the Mzab valley. Plus, a visit to the Touaregs of Tamanrasset and the sweet music of the Imzad instrument, rounding off with the incredible story of Charles de Foucauld, a foreign legion officer who found God in the volcanic mountains of the Ahoggar.