One of our first visits in Constantine was the Palace of Ahmed Bey. It’s an Ottoman era building that started out as his mother’s home and then got greatly expanded. The palace was built over ten years, from 1825 to 1835. Ahmed Bey utilized a Genovese engineer and two well known artists for the architectural design. But only two years after Bey moved in, the French chased him out and made his palace into their headquarters.

The palace consists of three suites connected by hallways which have arches supported by 266 marble columns. It has two marble fountains, three courtyards, 540 cedar wood doors, sculptures, decorations, paintings depicting Ahmed Bey’s travels, and marble and tile everywhere including both Tunisian and French tiles. The courtyards have orange trees, palm trees, cedar trees, and more plants.

The first photo is to try and give a sense of the structure and size of one of the three suites. The gardens were also very nice.

The hallways connecting the suites and other areas were very extensive and beautiful in their own right. The columns, fountains, and floors were all marble.

This is the room where Ahmed Bey would conduct his business. In particular, notice the tiles and the men’s dress.

This is another view of the hallway but notice the wall tiles and the extensive paintings that were up above the tiles. Some 6,500 feet of walls and ceilings were covered with paintings, now mostly very deteriorated but still visible.

The last photo is the Harem. It was obviously very extensive. The fountain would have been working and the pool would have been filled with water back then. It was a bit of a challenge for me when we visited here as it was me and eight women in our group. I kept on the quiet side.