Tipaza

Phoenician and Punic traders used the headlands here as a stop on the coastal route west. Under Roman rule Tipasa became a military and commercial town of the province of Mauretania Caesariensis, made a colony under the emperor Claudius and defended by a wall about 2.3 km long. It had a theatre, an amphitheatre, baths, a nymphaeum, a harbour and villas looking over the sea, and its quarries supplied stone along the coast.

From the third century it became an important Christian centre, and the large basilicas, the basilica of Bishop Alexander and the great cemeteries of stone sarcophagi on the western headland date from that time. The town declined after the Vandal conquest in the fifth century and was largely abandoned by the Arab period, leaving the ruins to be quarried and grazed.

The modern town was founded by French settlers in 1857 beside the ancient site, which was excavated from the late 19th century onwards. Albert Camus wrote an essay, Noces à Tipasa, about the ruins among wild flowers above the sea, and the place has been associated with him ever since. UNESCO inscribed Tipasa as a World Heritage Site in 1982; it was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2002 and removed from it in 2006 after conservation work. Tipaza is the capital of the province that bears its name.

Tipaza's identity is bound up with the ruins and the sea. It is a provincial Algerian town for most of the year, with life turning on the mosque, the market, the harbour and the cafés, and then a holiday town for two months each summer when families arrive from Algiers and the interior. That double rhythm shapes everything from opening times to the price of a room.

The area has a Berber as well as an Arabic-speaking identity. The Chenoua massif immediately west is home to speakers of Chenoua, an Amazigh language, and the mountain gave its name to Assia Djebar's film La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua, which drew on the women of these villages. Kabyle and Arabic music are both heard at weddings, and Yennayer, the Amazigh new year, is marked in January.

The literary association with Albert Camus, who grew up in Algiers and wrote about the site's stones, absinthe and sea light, brings a steady trickle of visitors making a pilgrimage of sorts. Custom otherwise follows the Algerian pattern: hospitality offered before anything else, Friday as the day of rest, modest dress in town, and a strong preference for eating at home with family rather than in restaurants.

The town itself is small, and far more people live in the surrounding communes of Tipaza province, of which it is the administrative capital; the province counted about 706,000 inhabitants in 2019. Fishing from the small port, farming on the coastal plain — vines, citrus, tomatoes and early vegetables — and provincial administration provide most of the steady work, supplemented by construction and by the summer visitors who fill the hotels and beach flats.

Housing spreads inland from the old grid in low blocks and villas, and holiday developments run along the shore towards Chenoua. Young people travel to Algiers or Blida for university and often for work, a commute of well over an hour each way on a road that is congested at both ends of the day. Water supply, building too close to the protected site and the seasonal swing in the local economy are recurring local issues.

The daily rhythm is that of a small Mediterranean town: fishing boats in early, the market busy in the morning, a long quiet afternoon, and the promenade and cafés filling as the heat drops. In winter the seafront is nearly empty and the town turns inward; in August the same streets are full until well after midnight.

The harbour sets the menu. Sardines grilled over charcoal, fried anchovies, sea bream and prawns come to the quay restaurants straight from the boats, usually served plain with bread, lemon, salad and harissa. Fish soup and rice with seafood, echoes of Spanish and Italian cooking along this coast, appear on the same tables.

Away from the sea the food is that of the Mitidja and the Algiers region. Chorba, a soup of tomato and cracked wheat or vermicelli, opens most evening meals in Ramadan; couscous with lamb and seasonal vegetables is the Friday dish; and dolma of stuffed courgettes and peppers, tajine zitoune of chicken with olives and bourek pastries are everyday cooking. Mhadjeb, folded semolina crêpes with a tomato and onion filling, are sold hot from street griddles.

The plain behind the town supplies oranges, clementines, tomatoes and early vegetables, and its olives are pressed for oil. Vines have been grown here since the colonial period, though most local people do not drink wine. Pastries lean on semolina, honey and almonds — makroud, baklawa, griwech — and mint tea or a small strong coffee ends any meal or visit.