The main street of *Mustapha-Supérieur is the Rue Michelet (Pl. B, A, 5–8), a street nearly 2½ M. long, in line with the Rue d’Isly. The first third of it is uninteresting. It passes the former Académie (Pl. B, 5), situated on a high terrace below the Quartier d’Isly, which was converted into a university in 1909 (1442 students). Farther on the road leads through the suburb of Agha-Supérieur to the (½ M.) so-called Plateau Saulière (Pl. B, 6, 7; tramway-terminus, Station Sanitaire; p. [218]).
The upper Rue Michelet, which, in spite of its steep hills, is the most fashionable drive in Algiers, ascends, partly in windings, past the hotels (p. [217]), a number of handsome villas, and several charming points of view, to the top of the Sahel. Beyond the Scottish Church (p. [220]) at the first sharp bend in the road, rises, behind the view-terrace of the Museum Garden, the—
*Museum (Musée National des Antiquités Algériennes; Pl. A, 6, 7), opened in 1897, containing the finest collection of the kind in Algeria. Adm., see p. [220]. Catalogue rather old (1899). Director, M. Stéphane Gsell.
The Garden contains a dolmen (of the Beni-Messous) from Guyotville (p. [237]), Roman tombstones, vases, etc.
In the Vestibule are views of Old Algiers, from the 17th cent. onwards. Over the inner door is an early-Christian mosaic from Rusguniæ (p. [248]) representing Christ as the Good Shepherd.—The Court contains modern views of Algiers and Arabic, Jewish, and Turkish inscriptions. In the centre is a Roman mosaic from Sila, representing Scylla (p. [155]) and marine deities.—On the right is—
Room I. The cases in the middle and most of the wall-presses contain prehistoric antiquities from the provinces of Algeria and Oran and from the Sahara, including the Flamand collection (1889–90). Along the walls are ranged casts and copies of the graffiti or rock-drawings of Tiout (p. [202]), Moghrar-Tahtàni (p. [203]), etc.; Libyan (early Berber) tomb-stelæ; on the end-wall to the right, a warrior on horseback, from Abizar in Great Kabylia; two cases with relics from Phœnician tombs at Gouraya (some of them imported from Greece); also Punic tomb-stelæ, etc.—In the centre are a fine mosaic from Aïn-Babouch and models of the mausoleum of Le Khroub (p. [273]), of the so-called Tombeau de la Chrétienne (p. [238]), and of the Medracen (p. [274]).—We now pass through R. IV into—
Room II. In the centre are antique marbles: *Torso of a Venus (in the style of the Capitoline Venus), draped female *Statue (replica of a work of the age of Phidias; the head added later), colossal statue of Poseidon (after a Greek original of the 4th cent.), torso of Bacchus, Satyr and Hermaphrodite (after a group of the Hellenistic period; a torso), two elegant decorative pillars, all of these coming from the so-called museum of king Juba at Cherchell (p. [244]); then a colossal bust of Minerva from Khamissa; bronze *Figure of a boy with an eagle, from Lambèse. By the wall next the court is a fragment of a sarcophagus-relief, Warrior with wounded Amazon (Achilles and Penthesilea?). By the back-wall are casts of the chief antiques of Cherchell, marble busts, including Jupiter Serapis and a god of the lower regions, both from Carthage. The wall-cabinets contain Greek and Etruscan vases and fragments of Roman sculptures and inscriptions. Around are mosaics: Boar and panther hunt from Orléansville; fragment of a representation of the Four Seasons, from Lambèse; Europa with the bull, Jupiter and Antiope, Oceanus and Nereids. In the centre is a relief-plan of Timgad (p. [289]).—We next pass through R. V into—
Room III. Among the bronzes in the first case are a mask (3rd cent. B. C.) from El-Grimidi; a statuette of Venus untying her sandal, from Cherchell; adjacent, an early-Christian bronze lamp (5th cent.). Then come cases with Greek, Roman, and Mauretanian coins, lamps, etc. The case by the wall next the court contains early-Christian reliquaries (in terracotta). Along the walls are ranged Roman and early-Christian inscriptions, reliefs, and architectural fragments; by the entrance-wall is the tombstone of a bishop from Mouzaïaville (5th cent.); by the end-wall Roman busts (incl. Hadrian); a slab bearing regulations as to rights of using water, from Lamasba (Mérouana); early-Christian sarcophagus from Dellys (4th cent.).
The corner-rooms (IV and V) contain the Oriental Section (Art of Islam), which has received considerable additions and for which five new rooms are being prepared.
Room IV. Berber and early Moorish works of art. In the ante-room Berber vases, tissues, and wood-carving from Great Kabylia, etc., incl. an ancient Kabylian cradle. In the central case are Berber trinkets, chiefly from Great Kabylia (Dra el-Mizan; work of the Beni-Yenni), and Tunisian vases. Cases with Algerian bronzes and curiosities from Kalâa des Beni-Hammad (p. [270]; stucco-work, fragments of vases). Cases and two wall-presses containing superb Moroccan embroidery (some showing Spanish-Moorish influence), mostly from the region of Fez. A large majolica vase from Palma (Majorca). Also, on the walls, *Carpets from the district of Jebel Amour, from Kalâa (p. [207]), Kairwan, Rabât, and of the tribe of the Rirha (near Sétif).