Prayer Times in Algiers

About Prayer Times in Algiers

Algiers is the capital and largest city of Algeria, a country where Islam is the state religion and over 99% of the population is Muslim, predominantly Sunni of the Maliki school. Algeria's relationship with Islam is historically complex — the country's independence from France in 1962 was achieved partly through a movement that drew on Islamic identity, and the postwar decades have seen ongoing negotiation between secular state structures and Islamic civil society. Algiers, a city of approximately three million, is the country's administrative, cultural, and Islamic institutional centre.

Algeria's prayer times are officially administered by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Waqfs using the Muslim World League method (Fajr at 18°). At 36.7°N, Algiers is one of the more northerly cities in Muslim-majority North Africa — prayer times show considerable seasonal variation. In summer, Fajr can begin around 3:30 AM and Isha end after 10:30 PM; in winter, Fajr falls around 6:25 AM and Maghrib near 5:35 PM. These times are broadcast on Algerian state radio and displayed on screens in mosques across the country.

The Ketchaoua Mosque in the heart of the Casbah of Algiers — a UNESCO-listed Ottoman-era structure converted from a church and back again through Algeria's turbulent history — is one of the capital's most historic mosques. The newly constructed Djamaa el Djazaïr (the Great Mosque of Algiers), inaugurated in 2019, is now the third-largest mosque in the world, with a minaret of 265 metres — the tallest in the world — and a capacity of 120,000 worshippers. The Casbah of Algiers, with its maze of Ottoman-era mosques and zawiyas (Sufi lodges), remains a living Islamic heritage site.