Oran (arabe:وهران, Wahran les deux lions), aussi appelée El Bahia (« la radieuse »), est u
Oran (arabe:وهران, Wahran les deux lions), aussi appelée El Bahia (« la radieuse »), est une ville portuaire du nord-ouest de l'Algérie, chef-lieu de la wilaya du même nom sur le golfe d'Oran.
Oran est située au fond d'une baie ouverte au nord et dominée directement à l'ouest par la montagne de l'Aïdour, d'une hauteur de 375 m. L'agglomération s'étage de part et d'autre du profond ravin de l'oued Rhi, maintenant couvert.
Oran (arabe:وهران, Wahran les deux lions), aussi appelée El Bahia (« la radieuse »), est une ville portuaire du nord-ouest de l'Algérie, chef-lieu de la wilaya du même nom sur le golfe d'Oran.
Oran est située au fond d'une baie ouverte au nord et dominée directement à l'ouest par la montagne de l'Aïdour, d'une hauteur de 375 m. L'agglomération s'étage de part et d'autre du profond ravin de l'oued Rhi, maintenant couvert.
Oran (arabe:وهران, Wahran les deux lions), aussi appelée El Bahia (« la radieuse »), est une ville portuaire du nord-ouest de l'Algérie, chef-lieu de la wilaya du même nom sur le golfe d'Oran.
Oran est située au fond d'une baie ouverte au nord et dominée directement à l'ouest par la montagne de l'Aïdour, d'une hauteur de 375 m. L'agglomération s'étage de part et d'autre du profond ravin de l'oued Rhi, maintenant couvert.
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Kabylie or Kabylia (Kabyle: Tamurt n leqbayel) is a cultural region in the north of Algeri
Kabylie or Kabylia (Kabyle: Tamurt n leqbayel) is a cultural region in the north of Algeria. It corresponds more or less with the homeland of the Kabyle people.
It is part of the Atlas Mountains and is located at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. Kabylia covers several districts (wilayas) of Algeria: the whole of Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia (Bgayet), most of Bouira (Tubirett) and parts of the wilayas of Bordj Bou Arreridj, Jijel, Boumerdes, and Setif.
The Fatimid dynasty of the 10th century originated in Petite Kabylie, where an Ismaili da'i found a receptive audience for his millennialist preaching, and ultimately led the Kutama tribe to conquer first Ifriqiya and then Egypt. After taking over Egypt, the Fatimids themselves lost interest in the Maghreb, which they left to their Berber deputies, the Zirids. The Zirid family soon split, with the Hammadid branch taking over Kabylie as well as much of Algeria, and the Zirids taking modern Tunisia. They had a lasting effect on not only Kabylie's but Algeria's development, refounding towns such as Bejaia (their capital after the abandonment of Qalaat Beni Hammad) and Algiers itself.
After the Hammadids' collapse, the coast of Kabylie changed hands regularly, while much of the interior was often effectively unruled. Under the Ottoman Turks, most of Kabylie was inaccessible to the deys, who had to content themselves with occasional incursions and military settlements in some valleys. In the early part of the Ottoman period, the Belkadi family ruled much of Grande Kabylie from their capital of Koukou, now a small village near Tizi-Ouzou; however, their power declined in the 17th century.
The area was gradually taken over by the French from 1857, despite vigorous local resistance by the local population led by leaders such as Lalla Fatma n Soumer, continuing as late as Cheikh Mokrani's rebellion in 1871. Much land was confiscated in this period from the more recalcitrant tribes and given to French pied-noirs. Many arrests and deportations were carried out by the French, mainly to New Caledonia. Colonization also resulted in an acceleration of the emigration into other areas of the country and outside of it.
Algerian immigrant workers in France organized the first party promoting independence in the 1920s. Messali Hadj, Imache Amar, Si Djilani, and Belkacem Radjef rapidly built a strong following throughout France and Algeria in the 1930s and actively developed militants that became vital to the future of both a fighting and an independent Algeria. During the war of independence(1954-1962), Kabylie was one of the areas that was most affected, because of the importance of the maquis (aided by the mountainous terrain) and French repression. The FLN recruited several of its historical leaders there, including Hocine Aït Ahmed, Abane Ramdane, and Krim Belkacem.
Tensions have arisen between Kabylia and the central government on several occasions, initially in 1963, when the FFS party of Hocine Aït Ahmed contested the authority of the single party (FLN). In 1980, several months of demonstrations demanding the officialization of the Berber language, known as the Berber Spring, took place in Kabylie.
The politics of identity intensified as the Arabization movement in Algeria gained steam in the 1990s. In 1994--1995, a school boycott occurred, termed the "strike of the school bag." In June and July of 1998, the area blazed up again after the assassination of singer Matoub Lounes and at the time that a law generalizing the use of the Arabic language in all fields went into effect. In the months following April 2001 (called the Black Spring), major riots — together with the emergence of the Arouch, neo-traditional local councils — followed the killing of a young Kabyle (Masinissa Guermah) by gendarmes, and gradually died down only after forcing some concessions from the President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Since 23 March 2007, the Military of Algeria has conducted extensive searches in the Kabylie region in search of members of the GSPC. Two major roads, between Béjaïa and Amizour and between El-Kseur and Bouira, have been partially closed. The bombings in Alger on 11 April 2007 rendered this search all the more urgent, as the GSPC has recently become the Maghrebin arm of the Al-Qaida Network.
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Algiers (Arabic: الجزائر, Standard Arabic: Al Jaza'ir IPA: [ɛlʤɛˈzɛːʔir], Algerian Arabic:
Algiers (Arabic: الجزائر, Standard Arabic: Al Jaza'ir IPA: [ɛlʤɛˈzɛːʔir], Algerian Arabic: Dzayer ([dzæjer] (From Berber pronunciation), [[Berber languages|of the largest in the Maghreb[1] (behind Casablanca).
Nicknamed El-Bahdja (البهجة) or Alger la Blanche ("Algiers the White") for the glistening white of its buildings as seen rising up from the sea, it is situated on the west side of a bay of the Mediterranean Sea. The city name is derived from the Arabic word al-jazā'ir, which translates as the islands, referring to the four islands which lay off the city's coast until becoming part of the mainland in 1525. Al-jazā'ir is itself a truncated form of the city's older name jazā'ir banī mazghannā, "the islands of (the tribe) Bani Mazghanna", used by early medieval geographers such as al-Idrisi and Yaqut al-Hamawi. Algiers is the only Algerian city with an English name different from its French name.
The modern part of the city is built on the level ground by the seashore and the old part, the ancient city of the deys, climbs the steep hill behind the modern town and is crowned by the casbah or citadel, 400 feet (122 m) above the sea. The casbah and the two quays form a triangle.
commercial outpost called Ikosim, later developed into a small Roman town called Icosium, existed on what is now the marine quarter of the city. The rue de la Marine follows the lines of a Roman street. Roman cemeteries existed near Bab-el-Oued and Bab Azoun. The city was given Latin rights by Vespasian. The bishops of Icosium are mentioned as late as the 5th century.
City and harbour of Algiers, circa 1921
City and harbour of Algiers, circa 1921
The present city was founded in 944 by Buluggin ibn Ziri, the founder of the Berber Zirid-Senhaja dynasty, which was overthrown by Roger II of Sicily in 1148. The Zirids had before that date lost Algiers, which in 1159 was occupied by the Almohades, and in the 13th century came under the dominion of the Abd-el-Wadid sultans of Tlemcen.
Nominally part of the sultanate of Tlemcen, Algiers had a large measure of independence under amirs of its own, Oran being the chief seaport of the Abd-el-Wahid. The islet in front of the harbour, subsequently known as the Penon, had been occupied by the Spaniards as early as 1302. Thereafter, a considerable trade grew up between Algiers and Spain.
Algiers from this time became the chief seat of the Barbary pirates. In October 1541, the king of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V sought to capture the city, but a storm destroyed a great number of his ships, and his army of some 30,000, chiefly Spaniards, was defeated by the Algerians under their Pasha, Hassan. From the 17th century, Algiers, by then only formally part of the Ottoman Empire but essentially free of Ottoman control, sited on the periphery of both the Ottoman and European economic spheres, and depending for its existence on a Mediterranean that was increasingly controlled by European shipping, backed by European navies, turned to piracy and ransoming. Repeated attempts were made by various nations to subdue the pirates that disturbed shipping in the western Mediterranean and engaged in slave raids as far north as Cornwall. The United States fought two wars (the First and Second Barbary Wars) over Algiers' attacks on shipping.
In 1816, the city was bombarded by a British squadron under Lord Exmouth (a descendant of Thomas Pellew, taken in an Algerian slave raid in 1715), assisted by Dutch men-of-war, and the corsair fleet burned. The history of Algiers from 1830 to 1962 is bound to the larger history of Algeria and its relationship to France. On July 4, 1827, on the pretext of an affront to the French consul — whom the dey had hit with a fly-whisk when he said the French government was not prepared to pay its large outstanding debts to two Algerian Jewish merchants — a French army under General de Bourmont attacked the city, which capitulated the following day. Algiers became a French colony.
In 1962, after a bloody independence struggle in which up to 1.5 million Algerians died at the hands of the French Army and the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale, Algeria finally gained its independence, with Algiers as its capital. Since then, despite losing its entire European or pied-noir population, the city has expanded massively. It now has about 3 million inhabitants, or 10 percent of Algeria's population — and its suburbs now cover most of the surrounding Metidja plain.
Having hosted the All-Africa Games in 1978, Algiers will again host the games in 2007. Algiers is also the "Capital of Arabic Culture" for 2007.
In August 2007, The Economist magazine ranked Algiers as the least livable city in a survey of 132 cities.
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Nearly four times the size of Texas, Algeria is bordered on the west by Morocco and Wester
Nearly four times the size of Texas, Algeria is bordered on the west by Morocco and Western Sahara and on the east by Tunisia and Libya. The Mediterranean Sea is to the north, and to the south are Mauritania, Mali, and Niger. The Saharan region, which is 85% of the country, is almost completely uninhabited. The highest point is Mount Tahat in the Sahara, which rises 9,850 ft (3,000 m).
Excavations in Algeria have indicated that Homo erectus resided there between 500,000 and 700,000 years ago. Phoenician traders settled on the Mediterranean coast in the 1st millennium B.C. As ancient Numidia, Algeria became a Roman colony, part of what was called Mauretania Caesariensis, at the close of the Punic Wars (145 B.C.). Conquered by the Vandals about A.D. 440, it fell from a high state of civilization to virtual barbarism, from which it partly recovered after an invasion by Arabs about 650. Christian during its Roman period, the indigenous Berbers were then converted to Islam. Falling under the control of the Ottoman Empire by 1536, Algiers served for three centuries as the headquarters of the Barbary pirates. Ostensibly to rid the region of the pirates, the French occupied Algeria in 1830 and made it a part of France in 1848.
Algerian independence movements led to the uprisings of 1954--1955, which developed into full-scale war. In 1962, French president Charles de Gaulle began the peace negotiations, and on July 5, 1962, Algeria was proclaimed independent. In Oct. 1963, Ahmed Ben Bella was elected president, and the country became Socialist. He began to nationalize foreign holdings and aroused opposition. He was overthrown in a military coup on June 19, 1965, by Col. Houari Boumédienne, who suspended the constitution and sought to restore economic stability. After his death, Boumédienne was succeeded by Col. Chadli Bendjedid in 1978. Berbers rioted in 1980 when Arabic was made the country's only official language.
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La Kabylie est une région montagneuse (entourée de plaines et par la mer) du nord de l'Alg
La Kabylie est une région montagneuse (entourée de plaines et par la mer) du nord de l'Algérie.
Ses habitants l'appellent Tamurt n Leqbayel (« La terre des Kabyles »). Le pays des montagnes représente le Djurdjura occidental que les anciens appelaient Aït Wadda (« Ceux d'en-bas ») et le Djurdjura oriental qu'ils appelaient Aït Oufella (« Ceux d'en-haut »).
La Kabylie possède une côte qui s'étend sur plusieurs centaines de kilomètres. Elle fait partie de l'Atlas et se situe donc en bordure de la Méditerranée qui lui fournit ce que l'on appelle « la corniche kabyle », située entre Bejaïa et Jijel, dans ce qui était appelé durant, la période coloniale, la « Petite Kabylie ». Pour l'historien Ibn Khaldoun, elle représente la portion du territoire qui s'appelait la province de Bejaïa ; ce que les anciens kabyles appelaient Tamawya taqbaylit (ou Tamawya), « fédération kabyle ».
La Kabylie couvre plusieurs circonscriptions ou wilayas de l'Algérie : Tizi Ouzou et Béjaïa (Bgayet, anciennement Bougie), la majeur partie de Bouira (Tubiret) et Bordj Bou Arreridj, et une partie des wilayas de Sétif, Boumerdes, Jijel et de M'Sila (Tamsilt). Suite à l'insurrection de 1871, la France coloniale décida de diviser cette province en deux : la Grande et la Petite Kabylie, également appelées Haute et Basse Kabylie.
Ces deux Kabylies faisaient partie de l'ancien département d'Alger pour la Grande et du département de Constantine pour la Petite Kabylie. Béjaïa, la capitale de la petite Kabylie, est décrite par des historiens tels que Charles-André Julien ou Ibn Khaldoun. Les Kabyles l'appellent « Bgayet n Lejdud » (« Bougie des Ancêtres »). Tizi-Ouzou, la capitale de la Grande appelé autrefois « le village », existe depuis l'époque coloniale.
La Grande Kabylie, ou Haute Kabylie, va de Thenia jusqu'à Tigzirt. Elle représentait le territoire situé au nord du Djurdjura. Une petite portion de l'ancienne province de Bougie, la Petite Kabylie, ou Basse Kabylie, s'étendait de Bouira en englobant le Djurdjura oriental, l'Akfadou jusqu'à Bougie et s'étendait d'ouest en est, et de la Méditerranée en passant par la vallée de la Soummam du nord au sud, soit plus de 500 km. Elle comprenait ainsi les confédérations des Bibans et celle des Babors jusqu'a Collo.
Trois grands massifs montagneux occupent la plus grande partie de la région : * Au Nord, la chaîne de la Kabylie maritime, culminant aux Aït Djennad (mont Tamgout 1278 m) * Au Sud, le Djurdjura, dominant la vallée de la Soummam, culminant au Lalla-Khadîdja (mont Tamgout Aâlayen 2308 m) * Entre les deux, le massif Agawa, le plus densément peuplé, avec 800 m d'altitude moyenne. C'est là où se trouve la plus grande ville de la Grande Kabylie, Tizi Ouzou. Larbaa Nath Irathen (anciennement « Fort-National »), qui compte 28 000 habitants en 2001, est le centre urbain le plus élevé de la région.
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Algeria is the second largest country in Africa. Its neighbours include Niger, Tunisia, Li
Algeria is the second largest country in Africa. Its neighbours include Niger, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Mali. The name Algeria is derived from Algiers which in turn is derived from Arabic word 'al-jazir'. Al-jazir means 'the islands' when translated in to English. Therefore by transitive property Algeria means 'the islands'.
Algeria has an estimated population of 32.854,000 people, making it the thirty fifth largest nation in the world population wise. Size wise, it is the eleventh largest nation in the world with approximately 2,381,741 sq km of territory. Its capital city is Algiers. Its official language is Arabic.
In between 1830 and 1962, Algeria was a French colony. Its present President is Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Algeria's current Prime Minister is Abdelaziz Belkhadem. Its currency is the Algerian dinar.
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Constantine or Qusantînah (Arabic: قسنطينة ) is the capital of Constantine Province (ولاية
Constantine or Qusantînah (Arabic: قسنطينة ) is the capital of Constantine Province (ولاية قسنطينة) in north-east Algeria, slightly inland, at about 80 kilometers from the Mediterranean coast.
The city was originally settled by Numidian people, and was known as Sarim Batim. Later its name was Cirta, from the Phoenician word for "city". Constantine was capital city of the Numidia, a berber empire that emerged in the 3rd century BC. The city was founded in 203 BC by king Micipsa, with the help of Greek colonists. She distinguished for the splendour of the public buildings and its population overcame that of all other towns of northern Africa. It had an army of 10,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry. In 113 BC the town was conquered by Jugurtha. Later it served as base of the Roman generals Caecilius Metellus Numidicus and Caius Marius. In 107 BC the latter gained a victory over Jugurtha in the nearby of Cirta. With the suppression of king Juba I and the rest of the supporters of Pompey in Africa (46 BC), Julius Caesar gave special civil rights to a part of Cirta, under the name of Sittlanorum Colonia. It became the head of a confederation of four similar settlements in North Africa.
In 311, during the civil war between emperor Maxentius and usurper Domitius Alexander (former governor of Africa), the city was destroyed. Rebuilt in 313, it was subsequently named after emperor Constantine the Great, who had defeated Maxentius. Conquered by the Vandals in 432, Constantine returned to the Byzantine exarchate of North Africa from 534 to 697. It was conquered by the Arabs in the 7th century, receiving the name of Qusantina.
The city recovered and in 12th century was again a prosperous market, with connection to Pisa, Genoa and Venice. Since 1529 it was intermittently part of Ottoman Empire, ruled by a Turkish bey (governor) subordinate to the dey of Algiers. Salah Bey, who ruled the city in 1770-1792, greatly embellished it and built much of the Muslim architecture still visible today.
In 1826 ,the last Bey, Ahmed Bey ben Mohamed Chérif became the new head of state and led a fierce resistance against French occupation forces. By 13 October 1837 the territory was reconquered by France, and in 1848 it was incorporated into the colony of Algiers (Algeria).
In World War II, during campaign in North Africa (1942-43), Constantine and the nearby city of Sétif were used by the Allied forces as operational bases.
Regarded as the capital of eastern Algeria, it has a population of over 500,000 (750,000 with the agglomeration) making it the third largest city in the country after Algiers and Oran. Situated in north eastern Algeria, Constantine is the centre of its region. Constantine is placed on a plateau at 640 metres above sea level. The city is framed by a deep ravine and has a dramatic appearance. The city is very picturesque with a number of bridges and a viaduct crossing the ravine. The economical base is the manufacturing of leather, wool and linen. Constantine is the centre of commercial activities and has Algeria and Tunisia as its markets. Constantine has one university, the University of Constantine, which was founded in 1969. There are museums and important historical sites around the city. Constantine can be found on the top of a gorge protecting the city on almost all sides. As so many other places in North Africa, the fortress and the city has been one and the same. Constantine got help from nature's side. The sights of today are spectacular, especially since this is a fairly big city. The gorge cutting the edges of Constantine, can be crossed by one out of four bridges, like Pont Sidi M'Cid, as on the picture. But I'm sad to report that a serious environmental scheme is needed to turn Constantine into what it should be. The gorge serves to a large extent as a dustbin, and is heavily polluted by oil as well. As for the economical side of constantine, it is the railhead of a prosperous and diverse agricultural area. Constantine is also a center of the grain trade and has flour mills, a tractor factory, and industries producing textiles and leather goods.
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énès (orتنس in Arabic) is an Algerian seaside resort located about 200 kilometers west of
énès (orتنس in Arabic) is an Algerian seaside resort located about 200 kilometers west of the capital Algiers. A very small city, it has a population of 35,000 people, as of 2000.
Ténès is an ancient town which existed in the 8th century BC. It was called Cartenae or Carthenes at that time. Ténès or Carthenes was first a Phoenician town then it was dominated by the Romans who freed it from the despotism and the terror of the Vandals. Therefore, the tribes of this town decided to reward the Romans by giving the name of the Roman leader (of the Roman army) "Ténès" to their freed town. Later the town was conquered by the Arabs who preached Islam in north Africa. Under the Arab rule, Ténès was an idependent monarchy. The Sultan Hassen Abid was the last one who ruled the monarchy of Ténès. The Ottomans attacked Ténès and defeated its army and annexed it to their vast empire in 1512.From that time Ténès lost its fame and importance and became an isolated town. Ténès Al-Atika(Vieux-Ténès)was built by the Moors who escaped from the Spanish persecution in 1400s after the collapse of the Arab States in Spain. In 1843, Ténès was occupied by the French who declared it a township and rebuilt the ancient Carthenes some 2 km to the north of Ténès-al-Atika.
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Algeria (Arabic: الجزائر, Al Jaza'ir IPA: [ɛlʤɛˈzɛːʔir], Berber: Image:Algeria tifinagh.JP
Algeria (Arabic: الجزائر, Al Jaza'ir IPA: [ɛlʤɛˈzɛːʔir], Berber: Image:Algeria tifinagh.JPG, Dzayer [ldzæjər]), officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is the second largest country on the African continent.[1] It is bordered by Tunisia in the northeast, Libya in the east, Niger in the southeast, Mali and Mauritania in the southwest, and Morocco as well as a few kilometers of the Western Sahara in the west.
Algeria is a member of the United Nations, African Union, Arab League and Opec. It also contributed towards the creation of the Arab Maghreb Union. Constitutionally, Algeria is defined as an Islamic, Arab, and Amazigh (Berber) country.
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