Oran

Oran is a port city in northwest Algeria, known as the birthplace of rai folk music. Fort Santa Cruz, an Ottoman citadel rebuilt by the Spanish, sits atop Mount Murdjadjo and has views of the bay below. Nearby is the whitewashed Chapelle Santa Cruz, built after a cholera epidemic. In La Blanca, the Turkish old town, is the 18th-century Pacha Mosque with an octagonal minaret. Nearby, Kasr El Bey is an Ottoman palace.