Chréa

Province

Chréa (Arabic الشريعة, DMG aš sari ʿ a) is a place in Tellatlas above Blida in northern Algeria.

Geographical location

The place is located at almost 1500 meters above sea level south of lying in the wide, Mitidja valley called in only 260 m height Blida, from the Chréa on the very tortuous, 18 -km-long road RN 37 or a little more than 7 km long cable car Blida - Chréa is achievable. He is just about 60 km from the capital Algiers. Immediately south of the village begins the National Park of Chréa, a recognized UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

History

Chréa arose at the beginning of the 20th century, created as the founder of the Algerian ski club there was a first mountain hut and soon after the first, still existing Hôtel des Cedars was built. Because of the proximity to the capital of the place, soon evolved into a popular ski and summer resort. Chréa is therefore likely to have been the first ski resort in Africa. 1956, the village was elevated to an independent municipality, which should have had more than 3000 inhabitants in the late 1980s and in 1984 received the first cable car. In the Algerian civil war, most inhabitants left the place that was once thriving tourism collapsed completely. The place is a base of the GIA - have been that carried out their terrorist attacks from here - Groupe Islamique Armé. Only since 2003 tourists came again under heavy military guard to Chréa.

Economy and infrastructure

Chréa is a very popular destination for day and weekend trips become, which is annually visited by more than 2.5 million people. The catchment area includes the capital and many other cities around 8 million inhabitants. The funicular was rebuilt in 2009 to facilitate access. On the other hand, the place is not grown much, he hardly has more than 500 permanent residents and for longer holidays are only a few hotels and chalets available. This will also be the negative aspects of modern tourism clear how littering and damage to the landscape.

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