Unique Algeria Documentaries

Algeria is the largest country in Africa by land area, covering 2.5 million square kilometres. Its landscape, from the warm Mediterranean coast to the snowy mountains of Kabylie and the scorching Sahara desert that occupies 80% of its territory, holds much to beguile the visitor. However, the country’s oil riches mean it has never had to court holidaymakers’ dollars, and tourism is only just beginning to take off.

Algeria’s history of invasion is reflected in its multilingualism: the native Berber population’s language, Amazigh, is now recognized as an official language alongside Arabic, and French is still widely used. This history has also left a varied architectural heritage, with Roman ruins, mosques that sprang up after the Arab conquest, Algiers’ Barbary pirates’ era old quarter, the Casbah, and French colonial buildings.

In Algeria’s Sahara desert, camels are still irreplaceable.

War has left many scars in Algerian society, from the French colonial conquest in the 19th century to the bloody struggle for independence which ended in 1962 and a murderous civil war during the 1990s. RTD’s Algeria documentary shines a spotlight on the remains of another conflict that has affected the country: refugees have fled the forgotten war in neighbouring Western Sahara and live in camps on the Algerian side of the border in the middle of the desert.