Algeria is the breathtaking alternative to busy Morocco

Escaping the crowds, Dom Tulett finds awe-inspiring cave paintings, vast desert and delightful markets further east

-  Dom Tulett

My guide gestured across a tumble of Algerian dunes that stretched out to the horizon, the saffron sand glowing under the setting sun. “In that direction,” he said, his eyes straining for emphasis under the dark blue band of his Tuareg headscarf, “it is just sand. Five hundred miles to Mali.” I tried to comprehend, humbled by the immensity of it all. Five hundred miles to Mali, and the dunes didn’t stop there.

I had been in the Sahara before, in neighbouring Morocco, where I'd joined a crowd of other tourists riding camels, plodding our way from the rear of our hotel to luxurious bell tents and a fridge full of refrigerated drinks. The edge had been taken off the experience by the sight of dozens of tyre tracks crisscrossing our trail. My Moroccan excursion was not a venture into an unexplored desert; it was a hairy theme park ride. Algeria was different.

My time in Africa’s largest country had started in the capital, Algiers: a city that can trace its past back to the 6th century BCE, when it started life as a Phoenician outpost.

Successive rulers from afar - Romans, Ottomans, French - built around that original site, placing their own layers of influence on the hills that rise from the Bay of Algiers. This has formed a city of multiple architectural styles, stacked up around avenues that plunge with the contours of the land.

The oldest section of Algiers is the kasbah. Its steep steps and winding alleyways remain a living, breathing hub of daily activity. There are workshops and small stores selling crafts, but these are oriented towards local shoppers - there are no tourist trap trinkets, no aggressive touts selling false promises of authenticity.