Algiers for The Time Travellers: a Friday-to-Monday weekend

A mosque that was a cathedral under the French and a mosque again in 1962. Its marble columns are the oldest layer here.

Three Ottoman houses and a harbour fortress, restored with cool courtyards and a small craft shop. The sea-wall view shows why corsairs chose this spot.

Eisenhower's headquarters in 1943, and still the garden hotel of the old city. The dark-wood dining room serves lamb with prunes and chorba.

A Phoenician trading post turned Roman port. Three early basilicas, a theatre, a nymphaeum and the cardo road, all in a park above the water.

The round tomb of King Juba II and Cleopatra Selene, daughter of Antony and Cleopatra, from about 3 BC. Sixty columns ring a stepped cone.

A long fish lunch on the terrace overlooking the ruins you walked. Grilled bream, rice and salad, and a pot of mint tea to finish.

A nineteenth-century Moorish villa that holds Algeria's prehistory and ethnography, including Tassili rock art copies. The tiled courtyard is worth the ticket alone.

Three concrete palm fronds rise 92 metres over the museum of the independence war. Start inside for the context, then take the lift to the summit.

A 1970s hotel on the ridge, with the whole bay below. The terrace restaurant serves Algerian dishes; book a window table at dusk.

The 1832 botanical garden is a colonial showpiece and still a living museum of trees. Walk the main alley and find the great dragon trees.

Roman mosaics and Islamic ceramics in a quiet hilltop villa. The Roman rooms are a good preview of the coast ruins you will have seen.

The traditional plotters' corner. Students and professors have argued here for generations, so order a coffee and a plate of merguez and listen in.