2-982-222 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Moorish Fountain, 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...The streets leading to the Casbah get steeper as they ascend, and many of them are mere flights of steps, and so narrow that the projecting upper stories of the houses often meet above the street...[At] the Fountain we engrave, which a Jewess is drawing water; while a Biskri water-carrier, with two large bright copper jars, is waiting for employment'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.