Dear Reader (2025-10-13 – posted simultaneously to FB)
There are three distinctive structures on Algiers’ skyline. There is the new mosque (red circle centre image 01), the Martyr’s Memorial (red circle left – image 01), and the hotel El Aurassi from the balcony of which image 01 was captured. The new mosque like all but two mosques in Algeria is not open to non-Muslims. I will have something to say about it and the hotel in a later post. In today’s post you and I will visit Martyr’s Memorial, take note of elements of Algeria’s history, and observe the street.
Martyr’s Memorial
The Maqam Echahid (Martyr’s Memorial) is a concrete monument commemorating all those who died over the decades fighting for Algeria’s independence. The monument was opened on July 5th 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” under it. At the edge of each palm leaf is a statue of a soldier representing a stage of Algeria’s struggle for independence (1). The memorial was built by two Canadian Companies, Fitzpatrick construction and SNC Lavalin.
Underneath the memorial there is the Museum of the Mujahid, which traces the history of Algeria’s struggle for independence. We (fellow travelers and I) were able to get into the museum on our third attempt. Just because the hours of cultural buildings are posted and one goes there during the posted hours does not necessarily mean the venue will be open to visitors. The museum, to my mind appeared, to be heavy handed in places. I left the museum feeling pummeled by Algeria’s violent and brutal past. Photography was forbidden inside the museum. I wondered if the authorities were afraid photographs could be taken out of context. But then again authoritarian regimes have their idiosyncratic rationales that are not necessarily logical to me.
Emil Abdelkader
Abd al-Qadir ibn Muhyi al-Din (6 September 1808 – 26 May 1883), known as the Emir Abdelkader or Abd al-Qadir al-Hassani al-Jaza’iri, was an Algerian religious and military leader who led a struggle against the French colonial invasion of Algiers in the early 19th century. Within Algeria, he was able to unite many Arab and Berber tribes to resist the spread of French colonization. (2)
Algerians consider him one of the great Algerian heroes and one of the founders of Algeria.
Footnotes
~ (1) – adapted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maqam_Echahid
~ (2) – adapted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emir_Abdelkader
Notes on Photos
~ 01 – Context
~ 02-06 – An exploration of the Martyr’s Memorial
~ 07 – Memorial to Emil Abdelkader
~ 09 – All three elements of this triptych were captured within a block or two of each other. Just to be fair, with slightly different clothes this same image could have been created in any number of local Calgary malls. There are the people shopping, and then there are the clothes that are for sale in empty stores for events and circumstances that are beyond my experience and knowledge.
What’s Next
In the post Algeria 01, I mentioned that I was on two back-to-back tours in Algeria. Both those tours started and ended in Algiers. Though you and I are not yet done with Algiers, beginning with the next post, let’s leave the city for a while and let’s go visit other places.
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Cheers, Sean
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2-I’m sorry, but I can’t help myself. Such monumental structures are almost self mocking once you think about them for a while. But something is odd here with the scale. Those look like toy cars in the foreground. A little imagination and this becomes an elaborate model photographed using a tilt-shift lens.
Street scenes. I admit that I’d be nervous about street photography in such a place, worried that a uniformed official might suddenly be in frame, or that something would be found to be objectionable. But it does show how much people are alike all over the world, loving to shop and looking for a bargain.