Algerian mosques: from Ottoman heritage to Africa's tallest minaret

Algeria brings together, in a single territory, one of the oldest Almoravid sanctuaries of the Maghreb and one of the youngest architectural records in the Muslim world: a 265-metre minaret, completed in 2019. Between the two lie centuries of shifting Ottoman, colonial and national rule.

Ketchaoua, a mosque with three lives

Few religious buildings have had as eventful a fate as the Ketchaoua Mosque, in the Casbah of Algiers. Built (or substantially rebuilt) in the Ottoman era in the 18th century, it was turned into a cathedral after France's capture of Algiers in 1830 : its two minarets were then topped with bell towers. At independence in 1962, the building became a mosque once again. Its carved doors and marble columns bear witness today to these successive layers : Ottoman, colonial, then Muslim religious once more.

The Great Mosque of Algiers, an Almoravid elder

Algiers also preserves a much older heritage: the Great Mosque (Djamaa al-Kebir), whose core is thought to date from the 11th century under the Almoravid dynasty, making it one of the oldest mosques still in use in the central Maghreb. Its colonnaded prayer hall and sober minaret, added in the 16th century, recall the restraint of early North African mosque architecture, before the great decorative programmes of later centuries.

Djamaa El Djazair, a contemporary record

At the other end of the timeline, Djamaa El Djazair ("the Great Mosque of Algiers"), inaugurated in 2019 on the seafront, claims third place worldwide by capacity and Africa's tallest minaret, rising to 265 metres. Its continuous arcaded galleries stretching several hundred metres and its earthquake-resistant prayer hall make it as much a manifesto of engineering as of faith, on the scale of the great contemporary projects of the Gulf.

A transitional architecture, between the Maghreb and the Mediterranean

Between these chronological extremes, Algeria also inherited more modest Ottoman mosques in its large coastal cities (Algiers, Constantine, Annaba), recognisable by their squat domes and octagonal minarets close to Turkish models : a signature found all around the Ottoman Mediterranean, from Tunis to Sarajevo.