Ahmed Zabana National Museum

The Ahmed Zabana Museum, in a handsome French colonial building on Boulevard Zabana, is the main museum in Oran and the most comprehensive in western Algeria. The collection covers prehistoric archaeology from across the Maghreb, ethnography of Oran and the Saharan south, natural history specimens, and a section on the Algerian war of independence.

The standouts are the Berber and Tuareg ethnographic galleries, with jewellery, textiles, and a reconstructed nomad tent, and the small but well-curated room of paintings from the Algerian school of the early 20th century. Open Saturday to Thursday, mornings and afternoons (closed midday). Modest admission.

things to do museum
A story
The museum is named for Ahmed Zabana — born Ahmed Zahana — an FLN fighter captured by the French army in 1955 and guillotined in Algiers in May 1956. He was the first Algerian executed under the French anti-terrorism laws of the war of independence; his name was given to streets, schools, the museum, and Oran's football stadium.