Tlemcen carries itself with a quiet grandeur that comes from centuries of being important. At various times the capital of the Ziyyanid Kingdom, a centre of Andalusian culture following the expulsion of Moors from Spain, and a seat of Islamic scholarship rivalling Fez, this northwestern city has accumulated more layers of history than it can comfortably wear at once. The result, for visitors, is a city of almost embarrassing architectural riches.
The Great Mosque of Tlemcen, dating to 1082 under the Almoravids, is one of the oldest and most beautiful mosques in North Africa — its carved stucco prayer hall, its elegant minaret, its pierced dome above the mihrab all refined to a point of almost pure abstraction. Several kilometres outside the city, the Mosque and Tomb of Sidi Boumediene (built in 1339) is an ensemble of even greater ambition: a mosque, a madrassa, a tomb and the ruins of a royal palace with a hammam, all arranged on a hillside overlooking palm groves, the whole complex suffused with a calm that borders on the transcendental.
