Cultural properties: 14 new sites classified

Fourteen historical and archaeological sites, former facilities and buildings located in Algiers, Batna, Bouira, Tissemsilt and Illizi have been classified on the list of cultural properties in Algeria, published in the latest Official Journal, of 18 July 2013. The newly classified monuments and the buildings of the capital, Algiers, consist of the Algerian Galleries, the neo-Moorish buildings constructed in 1900 and housing since 2007, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MaMa), Basilica Notre Dame d’Afrique, the former Grand Séminaire of Kouba as well as the monument "Bordj Mers Ed Debane El Djadid" at Raïs Hamidou. Archaeological sites and buildings like "Ancient Rusguniae" (commune of El Marsa, ex Jean Bart, Algiers), the Aqueduct of Hydra and "Djenane Raïs Hamidou" in El Biar have also been classified, alongside those of "Ain Sfa", "Aïn Torkia", "Taza" (Tissemsilt), "Chemora" in Batna, "Tihodaine" and "Tin Ziren" in Illizi, and the mausoleum of "Ghorfet Ouled Slama" in Bouira. The "occupation, the use and the exploitation" of the classified monuments and buildings must "be adapted to the requirements of the conservation" of the cultural properties. More than 450 sites, monuments and buildings have been already classified as cultural properties in Algérie and thus protected by the law.