ALGERIA SEEN FROM THE SKY

"Algeria is without a doubt the most spectacular country I have ever photographed, and it is also the one where I received the best welcome"

Algeria is the first documentary made entirely from the sky on Algeria. The eye of Yann Arthus-Bertrand makes us discover this magnificent country, with very rare cultural and natural wealth. From North to South and from West to East, it is the daily life of a whole population that shows us the director, that it lives in the hectic big coastal cities, the mountains of the Atlas, the oases of the Sahara or the soft ones hills of the Sahel. Rich of a past where all civilizations seem to have crossed, and of a territory where all natural environments seem to exist, Algeria appears here in all its diversity and unity. The director gives free rein to his fascination with shapes, colors, faces and human prints to create an exceptional portrait of the largest country on the African continent and around the Mediterranean.

El Djazair, Algiers, or the door to the most immense country of the Maghreb, the whole Mediterranean basin, and Africa. From the sea, Algiers "the white", "the joyful" or "the well guarded" appears as a jewel stepped on the hillside crowned with greenery, marrying its bay sickle. 3 million Algerians now live in its agglomeration, one tenth of the population of the country, and through its port passes a third of international trade in the country.

As every autumn, families join the beaches right out of school for baths until dusk. Behind, the bottom of Algiers is emerging, with its Parisian appearance due to its avenues Haussmann, a sign of more than a century of French colonization. The Kasbah in the North, inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage List since 1992, is a legacy of the Turks, when the city was Byzantine and with it all the Maghreb coast. The oldest district of Algiers rises 118m above the sea, and in their maze of alleys, stairs, dead ends and their courtyards open on the sky, houses seem to tumble down the hill. The Kasbah contains all the contemporary history of Algiers between its walls and now again, the windows bristling with antennas seem to look towards Europe, testimony perhaps of the wealth of the Algerian diaspora, which carries with it its culture and bring that of France, Spain, Italy, the United States or Canada. Perched on the hills, Notre Dame d'Afrique, built under the French but of Byzantine architecture seems to dialogue with the Bologhine mosque, named after the prince who founded the city more than 1000 years ago on the ruins of Icosium, ancient Roman trade port. Algeria carries in its lands all traces of the cultures that shaped our civilization, Phoenicians, Romans, Numidians, Arabs, Ottomans, Europeans ... At 60km west of Algiers, Tipaza is no more than a village but the ruins of the ancient city testify to a glorious past that has made dialogue cultures. Between sea and mountain, sheltered by Mount Fenoua overlooking it, Tipiza was founded by the Phoenicians more than 2400 years ago to house one of their counters. Then came the Numidian kings and Juba II, an eclectic king and builder who had studied in Rome, who made it a radiant home of Greco-Latin art and culture. He introduced in Algeria the most advanced architectural and urban planning standards: sewers, pipes, baths, paving the streets and the art of mosaic ... It was 2000 years ago. Tipaza then became a Latin colony and later one of the great centers of African Christianity. Witness the ruins of the great basilica, the chapels, the baptistery and the necropolis built facing the sea.

1000 km of steep coastline on the sea and gentle hills on the back, the mountainous massif of the Algerian sahel imposes its geography. Here, the fields follow the contours of the cliffs, and the blue of the sea contrasts with the ocher of the rock and the bright green of pastures or crops. There, in the villages with the houses collected, a whole world of small farmers is devoted to the cultivation of the wheat, the vine, the fruit trees, the flowers and the vegetables. In Algeria, 44% of the population is rural, 14% of people of working age are engaged in agriculture and most of the fresh fruits and vegetables consumed are produced in the country. To connect the human settlements, the ports between them, we had to open roads in cornice. East of Algiers, it is the highlands, whose average altitude exceeds 400 m. In Kabylie, olive groves sit next to the snow-capped peaks of Mount Lalla-Khadidja, its highest peak at 2308m above sea level. The climatic and topographical differences make it a region of faunistic and floristic wealth unsuspected. The largest cork oak forests of the southern Mediterranean are spread here, next to the maples or the large cedar of the Atlas. Algeria is with South Africa the country of Africa with the most biosphere reserves. And further east we discover Constantine, the ancient Cirtes, capital of the Numidian kings and today the third city of the country, urban prowess attached to the rock as its bridges. In the South, it's the Sahara. It covers 80% of the territory. Tomorrow's energy territory? Its exploitation by solar energy could cover all the electrical needs of Algerians and Europeans combined. The dunes move over the years covering and discovering multiple prehistoric sites of great wealth. The dull mountain ranges emerge from the sand like gresous rocks carved in columns. In the Tassili region, there is the largest Neolithic open-air museum, rich in thousands of rock carvings and hilltop enclosures dating back more than 6000 years. The Sahara is dotted with islets of greenery and life, oasis where the date palm dominates the market gardening and shrubs, and where the migratory birds find their halt. 600 km south of Algiers, the M'zab Valley appears as a jewel with its five Mozabite towns that seem to be placed in the dunes, El Ateuf, Ben Izguen, Bounoura, Melika and Ghardaia, inscribed on the Heritage List UNESCO World Heritage Site for its splendor and architectural originality. In the middle of the desert, it is one of the most important economic centers in the country and has more than 100,000 inhabitants. From the sky, we read the curve of the alleys, we guess the cool patios in the center of the terraces that curl like the shell of a snail around the central mosque.

In this journey that spans millennia and territories, Algeria strikes. On its rocks, in its ports or deserts, it seems to testify unceasingly to the incredible diversity that can produce the human race.