Ruz el Djemaa el Kasbah
The Battle of Algiers was fought in the Casbah, and this day commemorates the network of fighters, couriers, bomb-makers, and safe houses that turned the Ottoman medina into a revolutionary fortress. The Casbah of Algiers is not just a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its architecture, it is a Heritage Site for its history. During the Battle of Algiers in 1957, the FLN organized the entire neighborhood into a resistance structure: every street had a cell, every building had a safe house, every woman was a courier. The French paratroopers under General Massu responded with systematic torture, mass arrests, and collective punishment. The Casbah won the battle of memory even though it lost the battle of 1957. The revolution eventually succeeded, and the Casbah was its fortress.
