Square Port Saïd lies at the junction of the French colonial city and the lower Casbah, a leafy public square shaded by ficus trees that serves as a natural gathering point. The square is flanked by some of the finest colonial-era buildings in Algiers: the covered Marché de la Lyre, an old theatre, and the ornate facade of a 19th-century bank. The old post office is visible from one corner.
The square is a good starting point for walking the lower Casbah and for understanding how the colonial city was grafted onto the existing Arab settlement. The contrast between the grid of the French streets and the organic tangle of the Casbah alleys above is immediately visible from here.