A Day of Discovery at El Hamma Garden and Zoo – Elite d’Or Academy Algiers Trip
A full day of discovery at the Jardin d’Essais, Algiers
A Garden Like No Other
Not far from the heart of the Algerian capital, tucked between the bay of Algiers and the slopes of the city, lies one of the most extraordinary green spaces in all of North Africa — the Jardin d’Essais du Hamma, known simply as El Hamma Garden or the Garden of Experiments.
This is not an ordinary park. It is a living botanical museum, a place where the history of science, nature and colonialism intersect in the most beautiful way possible — and a destination that has been enchanting visitors for over 170 years.
Elite d’Or Academy chose this remarkable place for one of its most memorable outings — and from the moment we passed through its gates, we understood why it has captivated generations of Algerians and visitors from around the world.
El Hamma — A Garden With a History
The Jardin d’Essais du Hamma was established in 1832, making it one of the oldest botanical gardens in Africa and the Mediterranean world. Covering approximately 32 hectares of land along the Algiers coastline, the garden was originally created as an experimental agricultural station — a place where botanists and scientists would test the cultivation of exotic plants and trees from across the globe to determine which species could thrive in the North African climate.
Over the following decades, the garden grew into something far beyond a scientific experiment. Ships arriving in Algiers from the four corners of the world brought with them seeds, cuttings and saplings from tropical forests, Asian highlands, American plains and Pacific islands — and the garden became a living collection of the world’s botanical diversity, all gathered in one extraordinary place under the Algerian sun.
Today, El Hamma is home to an estimated 1,200 plant species from across the globe, including trees that are hundreds of years old, plants found nowhere else in Algeria and specimens of botanical and historical significance that draw researchers and nature lovers from across the world. Its famous palm avenue — a long, majestic corridor lined with towering date palms — is one of the most photographed natural landmarks in Algiers.
The garden was classified as a national heritage site and has been progressively restored and expanded to include not only its botanical collections but also a zoological park — making it a destination that offers something truly special for visitors of every age.
Through the Garden — A Classroom Without Walls
When our group arrived at El Hamma on the morning of our visit, the first thing that struck everyone — students, teachers and parents alike — was the sheer scale and density of the garden. Towering trees in every direction, pathways disappearing into tunnels of green, the sound of birds overhead and the smell of earth and leaves and flowers everywhere.
For our students, the garden was an immediate and total immersion in the natural world — and an extraordinary opportunity to encounter trees and plants that they had perhaps only ever seen in photographs or read about in books.
As we walked the garden’s extensive paths, our students explored and discovered:
- Towering palm trees of multiple species — some reaching heights of 20 to 30 meters, their trunks ancient and textured, their crowns swaying gently in the coastal breeze
- Exotic trees from across the world — species from tropical Africa, South America, Asia and the Pacific, each labeled and each carrying its own story of how it arrived in this Algerian garden
- The famous bamboo groves — dense, tall and rustling in a way that creates its own particular atmosphere of green shadow and natural music
- Century-old specimens whose trunks have grown to extraordinary widths over decades of Algerian sun and coastal air
- Flowering plants and ornamental species that filled the pathways with color and fragrance
Our students moved through the garden with genuine curiosity — stopping to read the labels on trees, comparing the shapes of leaves, taking photographs of the most impressive specimens and asking questions that ranged from the scientific to the simply delighted. The garden rewarded every moment of attention with something new, something unexpected and something beautiful.
The photographs our students took that day were remarkable — framing the towering trunks, capturing the light filtering through the high canopy, finding the angles and compositions that expressed what they were feeling in that green and generous place.
The Zoo — First Encounters and Wide Eyes
Alongside its botanical collections, El Hamma is also home to the Algiers Zoological Park — one of the most visited attractions in the capital and a place that holds a particular magic for younger visitors.
When our group entered the zoo section of the garden, the energy of the day shifted immediately. The younger students — many of whom had never visited a zoo before — moved forward with an excitement that was both loud and completely infectious.
What followed was a series of first encounters that none of them will forget.
The zoo houses a diverse collection of animals representing species from across Algeria and beyond:
- Lions and big cats — the undisputed stars of the zoo, whose presence behind the glass produced a mixture of awe, excitement and a healthy amount of nervous backing away
- Primates and monkeys — always a favorite, and particularly entertaining for a group that had already encountered wild macaques in the mountains of Chrea and Tikjda
- Reptiles and exotic birds — colorful, strange and fascinating for students encountering many of these species for the very first time
- North African native animals — species that live in Algeria’s diverse ecosystems, from the desert south to the Mediterranean coast, giving students a new perspective on the wildlife of their own country
- Deer, gazelles and grazing animals — peaceful and accessible, much loved by the youngest members of our group
For many of our youngest students, this was genuinely the first time in their lives they had seen these animals outside of a screen. The difference between watching a lion on a television and standing a few meters from one — hearing it breathe, seeing it move, feeling the particular atmosphere of its presence — is not a small one. We watched several of our students stand completely still in front of enclosures, processing something they had no words for yet — the reality of the animal world, vast and wild and alive.
They took photograph after photograph, comparing their shots with each other, trying to capture what their eyes were seeing. The excitement was real, sustained and deeply moving to watch.
A Full Day, Well Spent
El Hamma is not a garden that reveals itself in an hour. It is a place that rewards time — and we gave it an entire day.
We moved at our own pace through the botanical sections in the morning, the zoo in the midday hours and the quieter, shadier parts of the garden in the afternoon when the light turned golden and the temperature softened. Between the walking and the discovering and the photographing and the animal watching, the day filled itself naturally and completely.
There were moments of structured exploration and moments of simple wandering. Moments where teachers explained and students asked questions, and moments where everyone simply stopped and looked at something beautiful together without saying anything at all.
By the time the afternoon drew to a close and we gathered to begin the journey back to Dellys, the group was tired in the best possible way — the full, satisfied tiredness that comes from a day genuinely lived, not merely spent.
What a Garden Teaches
El Hamma gave our students something that is increasingly rare and increasingly necessary: direct, unhurried contact with the natural world.
In a time when so much of young people’s experience of the world comes through screens — filtered, edited and two-dimensional — a day spent walking among trees that are older than their grandparents’ grandparents, standing in front of a living lion and touching the bark of a tree that grew from a seed carried here from the other side of the planet, is not a small thing.
It is, in fact, one of the most important things a school can offer.
At Elite d’Or, we believe that curiosity is the foundation of all learning — and few things feed curiosity more directly and more permanently than a day like this one. The questions our students asked in El Hamma, the photographs they took, the animals they met for the first time and the trees they will recognize for the rest of their lives — these are lessons that will outlast any textbook.
A Garden We Will Return To
El Hamma is the kind of place that you leave wanting to come back — and wanting to come back with more time, more attention and a better camera.
We will return. With new students to introduce to its trees and animals, with returning students who want to see how much they remember, and with a teaching team that finds in its green paths the same reminder they try to give their students every day: the world is extraordinary, and it is worth paying attention to.
Until the next adventure — Elite d’Or Academy.
