Audio walk · Algiers
Casbah
Put your phone in your pocket and walk. Your phone reads each stop aloud, then waits while you walk to the next one; tap “I've arrived” to carry on. Everything it says is written out below, so the walk works without sound too.
- 3 stops
- about 4 min of listening
- about 10 min between stops
- Cluster guide
3 stops · about 4 min listening · about 10 min between stops
Before you start
Voice and speed
The script is in English. On-device voices keep working with no signal once this page is open or saved.
Transcript
Everything the tour says, in order. Read it instead of listening if you prefer.
Before you start
Welcome to the Casbah audio walk in Algiers. 3 stops: Great Mosque (Djamaa el Kebir), Casbah old lanes (guided walk) and Ketchaoua Mosque. Morning cluster on a steep hillside of stairs and lanes: go early with a local guide, keep bags at the hotel, and be out by early afternoon.
From Place des Martyrs up through the old lanes to the Ketchaoua and Great mosques — the lower and middle Casbah, not the whole hill. Underfoot: worn stone, uneven steps; slope: steep; shade: high.
Algiers rises from its bay in three visible layers, and each one has its own century. The Casbah's Ottoman lanes climb the steep hillside above the port; French colonial boulevards ring the centre below and around it; and a newer, harder-edged city spreads south-east along the coast toward the memorial and the garden.
Before you start: Some Casbah houses are unsafe or private: stay on the lanes your guide uses and do not enter buildings uninvited. Keep your eyes on the street, and pause the audio before you cross a road.
1. Great Mosque (Djamaa el Kebir)
الجامع الكبير
Stop 1 of 3: Great Mosque (Djamaa el Kebir). Arrival point: Rue de la Marine, at the foot of the Casbah.
One of the oldest mosques in the city, beside Place des Martyrs: a short exterior stop; entry rules for non-Muslim visitors vary, so ask at the gate.
It stands as a counterpoint to the old Djamaa el Kebir in the Casbah: two mosques bearing similar names, built roughly a thousand years apart, are a small but telling illustration of how each era in Algiers has built its own monument over or beside the last.
Shoulders and knees covered; women may need a headscarf. Busiest around Friday midday prayers. Do not photograph worshippers. Avoid Friday midday prayers. Shoes off inside prayer areas.
Walk:Next, stop 2: Casbah old lanes (guided walk). It's about 4 minutes on foot. The tour waits here. Tap I've arrived when you get there.
2. Casbah old lanes (guided walk)
القصبة
Stop 2 of 3: Casbah old lanes (guided walk). Arrival point: Place des Martyrs, at the foot of the Casbah.
The walled hillside of Ottoman houses and stair-lanes: walk it in the morning with a local guide, not alone with a map.
The Casbah as it stands, walled and stacked with Ottoman-era houses, mosques and the dey's former palace, is the physical trace of this period. The Casbah is not one monument but a whole quarter, walled on the landward side and stacked in tight terraces down to the old harbour. By the time France annexed Algeria, the Casbah housed a dense, largely Muslim population increasingly hemmed in by a colonial city built at its foot; French planners drove wide new boulevards through the lower Casbah in the 19th century, cutting straight lines through a quarter that had grown organically for centuries.
Some houses are unsafe or private: stay on the lanes your guide uses. Morning is quietest; afternoon heat builds on the stone.
Walk:Next, stop 3: Ketchaoua Mosque. It's about 6 minutes on foot. The tour waits here. Tap I've arrived when you get there.
3. Ketchaoua Mosque
جامع كتشاوة
Stop 3 of 3: Ketchaoua Mosque. Arrival point: Upper Casbah lanes, on the same guided walk as the old lanes.
An Ottoman-era mosque on the steep upper Casbah, made a cathedral under French rule and returned to a mosque at independence: a short stop on the same guided walk as the old lanes, not a separate trip.
Quiet outside Friday midday prayers; busiest on Friday. Avoid Friday midday prayers unless your guide clears it. Shoes off inside.
End of the walk
That's the end of the Casbah walk. To carry on, Centre (Didouche Mourad) is about 25 minutes away (on foot). To carry on, Port and Amirauté is about 16 minutes away (on foot).
Built from this site's place pages, walking times and city deep dive; nothing is added that isn't on those pages. Opening hours, prices and rules change: check each place page before you go. Walking times are typical (median) and assume a steady pace.