Cherchell

 Cherchell,

Our first stop of the day was ay Cherchell, the former Roman capital. We had a view of the harbour before going int the National Public Museum of Cherchell. It had some mosaics, some household goods including several oil lamps and a lot of statues.

Lots of statues...

...multiple beautiful mosaics.

We went for a walking tour of the city centre. There was a temple that had had a checkered history. It was later converted to a church in Roman times but converted to a mosque with the arrival of Islam. During the French occupation, it became a church but at independence, it reverted to being a mosque. We walked through some back streets and through the market.

We had a meal of mixed fish overlooking the harbour in Tipasa on our wau back to Algiers. 

A map of Roman Tipasa. After lunch we had a guided tour of the 2^nd century Roman ruins of ancient Tipasa with a local museum guide to see baths, temples, the main thoroughfares, merchants houses and the third largest basilica in Africa dating from the Roman Christian era.  

We were heading back to Algiers but had a stop at the Mauritania Mausoleum. It is claimed that it was built for Cleopatra’s  and Mark Anthony’s daughter, Cleopatra Selene but there is no definitive evidence. 

Then we had an evening meal in a hotel near the airport and checked in for our 00.30 flight which was delayed to 01.45.