Constantine, Algeria
Province
Constantine (Arabic قسنطينة, Qusantina ) with 442 862 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2007) to Algiers and Oran, the third largest city in Algeria. It is the capital of the province, an industrial city and transportation hub. The city has a university, an Islamic university and ancient and medieval buildings such as the Statue of Roman Emperor Constantine and the Ahmed Bey Palace.
Geography
The city is located in the east of the country in a hilly landscape in more than 600 m above sea level, about 60 km south of the Mediterranean. The nearest coastal town is Skikda (ex Philippe Ville) in the north 80 km from the N3 or slightly further northeast Annaba (ex Bône ) in 157 km from the N3 and N 44 The capital Algiers is 430 km away, the Tunisian border Ghardimaou at 235 km and the city, located to the south on the edge of the Sahara Biskra around 225 km.
The old town of Constantine is on a mighty 650 meters located above sea level plateau, which is accessible only through a narrow ridge from the southwest, but drops steeply to the northwest and deep to the north and west by the more than 100 m canyon of the river Rhumel is cut from the opposite plateau Sidi M'Cid.
The modern city extends with many newer neighborhoods and suburbs far over the surrounding hills.
Geology
The river Rhumel has not cut into the limestone cliffs, but has been found in prehistoric times, a way under the rock through it. The canyon was formed when the ceiling of this underground river ever collapsed. Remains of this ceiling are in the canyon still exists today. The river leaves the canyon above a large waterfall.
History
As the richest and most prosperous city of Numidia, it played an important role in ancient times. Your Carthaginian name was Karta (city), the Romans called Cirta. It was made by Micipsa, the son Massinissa, founded with the help of Greek colonists and 203 BC as the capital of Numidia.
It was characterized by the magnificence of its public buildings and the number of its population from all other cities of northern Africa. In 113 BC the city was conquered by Jugurtha. The Roman generals Caecilius Metellus Numidicus and Gaius Marius, she served as the main base. Marius erfocht 107 BC at Cirta a victory over Jugurtha.
When King Juba I was inferior to the rest of his Pompeian party in 46 BC in Africa, Gaius Julius Caesar was one of his partisans, Publius Sittius Nucerinus, part of the territory of Cirta, which as a special colony of Roman citizenship and the name Sittlanorum Colonia received.
After the disintegration of the old Cirta, the 311 AD, in the war of Maxentius, was completely destroyed against the governor of the province of Africa Domitius Alexander, who had proclaimed himself emperor began. Constantine I, the Great, the city 312 AD Restore and gave her the name of Constantina.
430 the city was conquered by the Vandals. From 534-697 it was part of the Byzantine Empire, from the 8th to the 15th century ruled by the Berber and Arab dynasties. During the reign of the Ottoman Empire since 1529, the city was the seat of a Turkish governor.
On October 13, 1837 Constantine was conquered by French troops. In the French Second Republic from 1848 was the northern part of the modern state of Algeria, divided into the departments of Algiers, Oran and Constantine, part of metropolitan France. The city was the capital of Constantine so Département de Constantine. It was, as the entire north of present-day Algeria, 1851 French into the customs territory and in 1865, both politically and economically integrated into French territory.
Population
Constantine has 442 862 inhabitants (calculated 2007). However, it is assumed that the population of the city including the surrounding region is expected to be one million.
Population development:
City of Bridges
The location of the old town at the gorge of the Rhumel required the construction of a number of bridges. In flow direction from south to north these are:
- Pont Sidi Rached, a 447 m long viaduct with an arch bridge that was built in the years 1908 to 1912 by the French engineer Paul Séjourné. Your brick arches with a span of 68 m carrying a plate of reinforced concrete. The clearance height is 103 m.
- Pont du Diable ( Devil's Bridge ), a small, almost directly located under the Pont Sidi Rached arch bridge for pedestrians.
- Passerelle Perregaux / Mellah Slimane, a pedestrian suspension bridge.
- Pont d'El Kantara, a segmental arch bridge made of concrete with 128 m span and a clearance height of 125 m, which replaced an iron bridge built in 1863.
- Pont Sidi M'Cid, also opened in 1912, a suspension bridge with a span of 160 m and a clear height of 175 m, the order was the highest bridge in the world until the opening of the Royal Gorge Bridge, Colorado, USA in 1929.
- Pont des chutes / Pont de Winet el Foul ( waterfall bridge ), built in 1925, an arch bridge over the falls at the end of the gorge.
Approximately 600 m above the Pont Sidi Rached and outside the old town creates the Viaduc Trans - Rhumel Constantine, a four-lane cable-stayed bridge, which is scheduled to open in 2014.
Attractions
The main attractions in Constantine are:
- Gustave Mercier Museum
- Ben Badis Mosque
- Kasbah ( Old Town)
- Islamic Emir Abdel Kader University ( Université des Sciences islamiques " Emir Abd El Kader " )
- Djamma El Kebir Mosque
- Soumma Mausoleum
- Ahmed Bey Palace
- Ruins of the Roman aqueduct
- Statue of Roman Emperor Constantine
- The University Université de Mentouri Constantine ( UMC ), according to the plan of Oscar Niemeyer
- The Sanctuary El Hofra, which dates from the time of the Phoenicians
Economy and infrastructure
Constantine is an industrial city (cement, metal, light industry, food industry) and transportation hub. It has a university, an Islamic university and several schools and libraries. Constantine is also the seat of the National Trade Register Centre National du Registre du Commerce ( CNRC ).
After gaining independence, the nationalization of some industries began. Since the early 1980s, however, strives for economic liberalization and the promotion of the private sector.
Traffic
As a transportation hub Constantine is connected by national roads to the capital, Algiers and the port cities of Jijel, Skikda and Annaba. National roads lead to Tunisia and Biskra in the Sahara.
Airport Constantine Mohamed Boudiaf Aéroport is located about 9 km south of the city. He has except Algerian targets also links to various French towns and to Geneva.
Constantine has rail links to Algeria Tébessa, M'Sila, Skikda and Jijel.
The Autoroute Est -Ouest (East West Highway ) results in a wide arc to the east and south by Constantine around and past the airport.
Since 2008, Constantine has the Téléphérique de Constantine, an urban gondola, which runs between the old town, the hospital district on the opposite side of the Oued Rhumel and a good 1 km from the district.
Twinning
Constantine has partnerships with Grenoble in France, Sousse in Tunisia and Istanbul in Turkey.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Ahmed Bey bin Muhammad Sharif (1786-1851), the last Bey of Constantine
- Louis Brisset (1872-1939), French composer
- Aimé plug (1892-1966), French composer
- Charlotte of Monaco (1898-1977), Monegasque princess, mother of Prince Rainier III. Monaco
- Malek Bennabi (19051973), Algerian writer
- René Bianco (1908-2008), French opera singer
- Jean -Michel Atlan (1913-1960), French painter and philosopher
- Kateb Yacine (1929-1989), Algerian writer
- Françoise Arnoul ( born 1931 ), French actress
- Claude Cohen- Tannoudji ( born 1933), French physicist and Nobel Prize winner
- Abdelhamid Brahimi ( b. 1936 ), former Algerian Prime Minister
- Enrico Macias, ( born 1938 ), French singer
- Jean -Louis Comolli, ( b. 1941 ), French journalist and filmmaker
- France Anglade, ( b. 1942 ), French actress
- Abdelmalek Sellal ( born 1948 ), Algerian politician, Prime Minister
- Yve -Alain Bois ( born 1952 ), French - Algerian art historian
- Dominique Ouattara ( born 1953 ), French - Ivorian entrepreneur and first lady of Ivory Coast
- Solveig Dommartin (1961-2007), French actress and director
- Hassiba Boulmerka ( b. 1968 ), athlete, Olympic champion in 1992, first medalist Algeria
- Adel Abdessemed ( b. 1971 ), artist
- Ali Saïdi - Sief (born 1978 ), middle and long distance runners
- Sandra Laoura ( born 1980 ), French freestyle skier
- Chouaib Bouloudinats (* 1987), Algerian boxer