Chréa

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الشريعة
Chréa
Chréa (Algeria)
Chréa
Chréa
Coordinates 36 ° 26 '  N , 2 ° 53'  E Coordinates: 36 ° 26 '  N , 2 ° 53'  E
Basic data
Country Algeria

province

Blida
ISO 3166-2 DZ-09
height 1500 m
Residents 454 (2002)
Chréa
Chréa

Chréa ( Arabic الشريعة, DMG AS-Šarī'a ) is a place in Tellatlas above Blida in northern Algeria .

Geographical location

The place is almost 1500 m above sea level south of Blida in the wide valley called Mitidja at only 260 m above sea level, from Chréa on the very winding, 18 km long road RN 37 or via the slightly more than 7 km long cable car Blida - Chréa is available. It is only around 60 km from the capital, Algiers . The Chréa National Park, a UNESCO- recognized biosphere reserve, begins immediately south of the village .

history

Chréa came into being at the beginning of the 20th century when the founder of the Algerian ski club had a first mountain hut built there and soon afterwards the first, still existing, Hôtel des Cèdres was built. Because of its proximity to the capital, the place soon developed into a popular ski and summer resort. Chréa may therefore have been the first ski resort in Africa. In 1956, the place was raised to an independent municipality, which is said to have had more than 3,000 inhabitants at the end of the 1980s and received the first cable car in 1984 . During the Algerian civil war , most of the inhabitants left the place, the once flourishing tourism collapsed completely. The place is said to have been a base of the GIA - Groupe Islamique Armé - which carried out its terrorist attacks from here. It was not until 2003 that tourists came to Chréa again under strong military guard.

Economy and Infrastructure

Chréa has become a very popular day and weekend getaway destination, with more than 2.5 million people visiting each year. The catchment area, including the capital and numerous other cities, has a population of around 8 million. The cable car, rebuilt in 2009, facilitates access. On the other hand, the place has not grown much, it has hardly more than 500 permanent residents and only a few hotels and chalets are available for longer vacations. This also highlights the negative sides of modern tourism, such as littering and damage to the landscape.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Réda Cadi: La station climatique de Chréa on allAfrica.com (French), accessed 8 January 2011
  2. ↑ Mohamed Arezki Himeur: Algerians forget fighting to go skiing on BBC News, February 11, 2003, accessed January 8, 2011
  3. ↑ Abderrahmane Semmar: SOS Chréa en détresse! on La Tribune-online (French), accessed January 8, 2011

Web links

Commons : Chréa  - collection of images, videos and audio files