Constantine is regarded as the capital of eastern Algeria and the commercial centre of its region and has a population of about 450,000 (938,475[6] with the agglomeration), making it the third largest city in the country afterAlgiers andOran. There are several museums and historical sites located around the city. Constantine is often referred to as the "City of Bridges" because of the numerous picturesque bridges connecting the various hills, valleys, and ravines that the city is built on and around.
Constantine was named the Arab Capital of Culture in 2015.[7]
In antiquity, the city was originally called Cirta and served as the capital of theBerber kingdom ofNumidia. In 112 BC, the city was the capital of the Numidian kingJugurtha, who defeated his half-brotherAdherbal. The city later served as the base for Roman generalsQuintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus andGaius Marius in theirwar against Jugurtha. Later, with the removal of KingJuba I and the remaining supporters ofPompey in Africa (c. 46),Julius Caesar gave special rights to the citizens of Cirta, now known as Colonia Sittlanorum.
In 311 AD, during the civil war between emperorMaxentius and usurperDomitius Alexander (a former governor of Africa), the city was destroyed. Rebuilt in 313 AD, it was subsequently named in Latin as "Colonia Constantiniana" or "Constantina",[8] after emperorConstantine the Great, who had defeated Maxentius. During Roman rule, the city exported wheat and was the only population center that lay on both of the Roman roads paved in ancient Algeria.[9] Captured by theVandals in 432, Constantine returned to the ByzantineExarchate of Africa from 534 to 697. Following the Arab conquest of the city in the 8th century, it became known asQacentina. The city was a part of the wider region ofIfriqiya.
The city recovered in the 12th century and underAlmohad andHafsid rule it was again a prosperous market, with links toPisa,Genoa andVenice. After taking it from theHafsids in 1529 it was intermittently part ofOttoman Empire, ruled by a Turkishbey (governor) subordinate to thedey ofAlgiers.Salah Bey, who ruled the city in 1770–1792, greatly embellished it and built much of theMuslim architecture still visible today. During the Ottoman reign of Constantine, merchants traded a variety of goods such as; agricultural products, animals, embroidered textiles, leather, precious metals, swords, and pistols.[10]
Ahmed Ben Mohamed Chérif, known as Ahmed Bey, Musée central de l'armée, Algiers
In 1826 the last bey,Ahmed Bey ben Mohamed Chérif, became the new head of state. He led a fierce resistance against French forces, which invaded Algeria four years later. By 13 October 1837, the territory was captured by France, and from 1848 on until 1962 it was the centre of the Constantine Département. In 1880, while working in the military hospital in Constantine,Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran discovered that the cause ofmalaria is aprotozoan. He observed the parasites in ablood smear taken from a soldier who had just died of malaria.[11] For this, he received the 1907Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.[11] This was the first time that protozoa were shown to be a cause of disease. His work helped inspire researchers and veterinarians today to try to find a cure for malaria in animals.[11]
In 1934, Muslim anti-Jewish riots, the1934 Constantine Pogrom, caused the death of 23 local Jews and 3 local Muslims, 81 people were injured on both sides of the conflict.[12]
DuringWorld War II, during the campaign in North Africa (1942–43), Allied forces used Constantine and the nearby cities ofSétif and Bone as operational bases.
Constantine is situated on a plateau at an elevation 640 metres (2,100 ft)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 over Rhumel River and aviaduct crossing the ravine. The ravine is crossed by seven bridges, including Sidi M'Cid bridge. Constantine is the railhead of a prosperous and diverse agricultural area. It is also a centre of thegrain trade and has flour mills, a tractor factory, and industries producing textiles, wool, linen and leather goods.[citation needed] Algeria andTunisia serve as its markets.
The city is framed by a deep ravine and has a dramatic appearance. In 1911,Baedeker described it as "resembling the Kasba ofAlgiers, the picturesque charm of which has so far been marred by the construction of but a few new streets."[15]
El Bey Mosque built in 1703 also known by its post colonial name Souq El Ghezal Mosque.
The topography of the city is unique and it determines the need for bridges. At the end of the 19th century,Guy de Maupassant wrote: "Eight bridges used to cross this ravine. Six of these bridges are in ruins today." Today the most important bridges are:
Sidi M'Cid Bridge (1912), a suspension bridge with a length of 168m,
Constantine has in general four universities: two of them are downtown ConstantineMentouri Public University, designed by the Brazilian architectOscar Niemeyer, and Algerian architectRashid Hassaine, including Zerzara technical engineering pole, Zouaghi Slimane Geography and Earth Sciences Pole, and in the City of El-Khroub is the Institute of Veterinary Sciences.Emir Abdelkader University is one of the biggest Islamic universities with many faculties covering religious studies, foreign languages, and literature. Constantine's new town "nouvelle ville ali mendjeli" has two big universities: Université Constantine 2 known as "lella nsoumer" offers maths, computer and economy majors, and the new university is actually a university pole with more than 20,000 students, 17 faculties and more than 40,000 residents. It is now the largest African university under the name of "Université Salah Boubnider" known as "Université Constantine 3".
Constantine also owns its 14.7 km-long tram network serving the city centre at the airport and the main neighbourhoods of the metropolisConstantine tramway.
^Cole, Joshua (2019).Lethal Provocation: The Constantine Murders and the Politics of French Algeria. Cornell University Press. p. 17.ISBN9781501739415.
^Cole, Joshua (December 2012). "Constantine Before the Riots of August 1934: Civil Status, anti-Semitism, and the Politics of Assimilation in Interwar French Algeria".Journal of North African Studies.17 (5): 839.doi:10.1080/13629387.2012.723432.
^"Klimatafel von Constantine / Algerien"(PDF).Baseline climate means (1961–1990) from stations all over the world (in German). Deutscher Wetterdienst.Archived(PDF) from the original on 20 September 2021. Retrieved17 October 2016.
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