The Bardo Museum and The Museum of Antiquities

So today I explored a couple of museums…The Bardo Museum has a collection of ancient artifacts found throughout Algeria. Tinhinan’s bones are there! The real ones according to my my friend Tinhinan (She was named after the queen of the Touaregs). Tinhinan has a great sense of humor. After I told her I went to the museum, she said, “Oh so you saw my bones!” Well, in addition to the Toureg queen's remains there are many ancient arrowheads, rock paintings, pottery, and sculptures, as well as an impressive display of jewelry.

I am boggled by the amount of variety of jewelry on display there. Some impressive pieces were produced by the Moors that came and settled in Algeria when they were expelled from Spain. The Bardo Museum’s grounds are quite impressive in their own right. According to the Lonely Planet guidebook, it was once a Tunisian prince’s palace. The architecture and the patio and plants remind me some of the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio.

Just before noon, the museums close for lunch, isn’t that a hoot? I went down to Rue Didouche Mourad to laminate my Boozareah Campus ID. Then I grabbed some stuffed chicken for lunch at the Roi du Poulet. After that I finally dared to enter a patisserie. There are so many of them all over town and I look in the windows and feel overwhelmed by the choices, but I wanted to continue the birthday celebration with some sweet creation. I had a chocolate cake that was pretty much ½ mousse. I devoured it by a lamppost oblivious to my surroundings. Delicieux!
After that, I continued wandering down the street. I stumbled upon Ferries d’Algerie. They have a boat that goes to Alicante in 10 hours once a week (Tuesdays). It costs $200 round trip. Hmmm...

Did some internet and then I went on to museum number 2 for today…the Museum of Antiquities and Islamic Art. The Antiquities in this case are a treasure of Greek, Punic and Roman artifacts found in the area over the years. There is also a considerable collection of impressive work from Turkey that was brought over during the reigns of the Deys here. The Islamic Art along with a Numismatic collection is housed in a separate building but on the same grounds. The Islamic Art consists of swords, decorative Turkish pistols, Moroccan pottery, traditional textiles and clothes. Something that stands out is the very long tiara or crown that the women wore/wear when getting married.

There really is too much at these places and I felt pleasantly overwhelmed by the amount of information and the craftsmanship I witnessed. I wish I could post some pictures of them, but they seem to have a policy of no photography whatsoever at all museums. I am lucky though that the museums are are so reasonably priced at 20 Algerian Dinars which is the equivalent of 30 cents. I shall have to revisit soon.