2-982-221 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Fountain in Small Square, Algiers, 1858. 'In all Mohammedan cities fountains are very numerous and picturesque, and often magnificent. Around them characteristic groups are always assembled, and water-jars are very graceful accessories. At Algiers the professional water-carriers are the Biskri, an industrious race from the oases of the Great Sahara...At or near each fountain there is always a group of Biskri, with their large copper water-jars, waiting for employment, of which there is plenty, for many of the houses draw their entire supply of water from the public fountains...Many of the Moorish fountains were destroyed in the course of the alterations made in the lower town by the French, but they have been replaced by others, in which the Saracenic character has been preserved. One of these is in one of the narrow steep streets leading up to the Casbah...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.