Curious places in Algeria

8,000-year-old paintings of people swimming, diving and fishing - in what is now the driest desert on Earth. These scenes prove the Sahara once held lakes teeming with hippos, crocodiles, and fish the size of humans.

Hidden coves and harbors along the North African coast where corsairs based their operations. These refuges sat in the gaps between Ottoman authority and European naval power, allowing pirates to raid Mediterranean shipping with relative impunity for centuries.

Rock paintings in the central Sahara depicting hippos, crocodiles, and cattle herders in a landscape that is now barren desert. These images from 8,000 years ago prove that the Sahara was once a green savanna with lakes and rivers teeming with life.

Underground water channels called qanats that Berber communities built to tap into groundwater deep beneath the Sahara. These engineering marvels allowed people to live in the deep desert where no surface water exists, beyond the reach of the tax collectors and armies of coastal empires.