The adjacent Grande Mosquée, or Mosquée du Pacha (Pl. 4, C, 3; Arabic Jâma el-Pasha), erected by order of the Dey of Algiers after the withdrawal of the Spaniards in 1792, is now the only mosque in the town used for divine service.
The front building, erected in the form of a kubba, or saint’s shrine, at the sharp bend of the Rue Philippe, dates only from the French period (1864). The pretty Sahn, or court of the mosque, enclosed by a pinnacled wall, is planted with palms and bananas.
In the mosque itself, whose vaulting rests alternately on short pillars and clustered columns, is the Sedda or stage, under the great central dome, where at the Friday service the Mosammi, or leader of prayer, repeats the words of the priest (Imâm) for the benefit of worshippers at a distance. On the right, by the plain mihrâb or prayer-niche, is the mimbar, the pulpit for the Friday sermon.
At the back of the mosque, in the Rue de la Mosquée, rises the octagonal Minaret (Sauma), the tower from which the muezzin summons the faithful to prayer five times daily.
The pretty Place d’Armes (Pl. C, D, 3; 233 ft.), where the Rue des Jardins and the Rue Philippe end, is the business centre of the town and the chief tramway station (p. [176]). A Monument here recalls the battle near the Kubba Sidi-Brahim (p. [198]).
On the S. side of the square rises the Hôtel de Ville, or Mairie (Pl. C, 3), a building in the French Renaissance style, approached by a high flight of steps. On the W. side is the Grand Théâtre Municipal (p. [177]), opened in 1908. The grounds of the Cercle Militaire (Pl. C, D, 3; concerts, see p. [177]), on the N. side of the square, extend to the S. bastions of the Château-Neuf (p. [182]).
On the margin of the plateau, to the S.W. of the Place d’Armes and W. of the Rue de la Révolution, lies the poor Jewish Quarter, with its dirty streets, of which the chief is the Rue d’Austerlitz (Pl. C, 3, 4). Here an interesting fruit and vegetable market takes place daily (Sat. excepted). The best time for a glance at the Jewish quarter is a Saturday morning, between 8.30 and 9, when the women in all their finery go to the synagogues (in the Rue de Ratisbonne, etc.).
At the N.E. angle of the Place d’Armes begins the Boulevard Séguin (Pl. D, 3, 4), now the main street, with the chief banks, shops, and cafés, a favourite evening resort.—In a side-street, the Boul. du Deuxième-Zouaves, rises the new Cathedral (Pl. D, 3, 4), begun in 1905 and now nearly completed. To the S. of it is the Palais de Justice (Pl. D, 4) in the pleasant square named after it (music, see p. [177]).—From the S. end of the Boul. Séguin the Rue de Mostaganem and Boul. Marceau (Pl. D-F, 4, 5) lead to the new Gare Centrale (Pl. E, 4; p. [175]), in the modern Moorish style (1907–9).
The S. quarter of the town, between the Barracks (Pl. C, D, 4, 5), built in the charming neo-Moorish style, and the town-walls, is the so-called Village-Nègre (Pl. C, D, 5), a growth of the French period. It consists chiefly of small one-storied houses, occupied by the natives, the working classes, and the poorer Mohammedans, with the Marché Arabe as its nucleus. A visit may be paid to it in the morning, or better on a Friday or Sunday afternoon. In an open site on the E. side of this quarter, near the Rue Dutertre (tramway No. 6, see p. [176]), is the picturesque Marabout Sidi el-Bachir (Pl. D, 5; p. [172]).
Near this is the Porte du Cimetière, leading to the Jewish Burial Ground (Pl. D, 5), to the Christian Cimetière Tamazhouet (Pl. E, F, 5), and to the suburb of Lamur occupied by natives.