The advantage in Algeria is that almost all hotels and guesthouses have French TV channels, especially appreciated in remote towns like Ms'ila that I reached in a 3 hours ride with a Tintin like shared taxi from Batna, my backpack securely attached on the roof of the cab. The restaurant manager of Kal'aa Hotel offered his services to drive me to the Beni Hammad ruins, about 80km return, towards the Hodna mountains and passing some typical villages that for sure have not seen many tourists yet. The site itself consists of the Dar al Bahar, the great lake palace with its own pool; the great mosque with minaret that I climbed to the very top with a spectacular view. I was told that the old city of Beni Hammad was surrounded by huge entry gates in 3 directions to prevent ennemy forces from entering. That was in the 11th century under the berbic Zirid dynasty which ruled parts of the Maghreb from 973 to 1148.

The whole site is nothing spectacular compared with other WHS in Algeria, but is well worth a detour if you are in the region, also because of the quite pittoresque landscape.