Constantine, Algeria

General view, Constantine, 1899

The city was originally founded by the Phoenicians, who called it Sewa (royal city). Later it was renamed Cirta by the Numidian king Syphax, who turned it into his capital. The city was taken over by Numidia, the country of the Berber people, after the Carthaginians were defeated by Rome in the Third Punic War. In 112 B.C., the city was occupied by the Numidian king Jugurtha, who defeated his half-brother Adherbal. The city later served as the base for Roman generals Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus and Gaius Marius in their war against Jugurtha. Later, with the removal of King Juba I and the remaining supporters of Pompey 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 emperor Maxentius and usurper Domitius 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",[6] after emperor Constantine the Great, who had defeated Maxentius. Captured by the Vandals in 432, Constantine returned to the Byzantine Exarchate of Africa (i.e. North Africa) from 534 to 697. It was conquered by the Arabs in the 8th century, receiving the name of Qacentina.

During the 11th century, Banu Hilal, an Arab tribe living between Nile and Red Sea, settled in Tunisia, Tripolitania (western Libya) and Constantinois (eastern Algeria) which was Constantine party.

The city recovered in the 12th century and under Almohad and Hafsid rule it was again a prosperous market, with links to Pisa, Genoa and Venice. After 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.

Siege of Constantine in October 1837

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 had invaded Algeria four years later. By 13 October 1837, the territory was captured by France, and from 1848 on until 1962 it was an integral part of the French motherland and centre of the Constantine Département. In 1880, while working in the military hospital in Constantine, Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran discovered that the cause of malaria is a protozoan. He observed the parasites in a blood smear taken from a soldier who had just died of malaria.[7] For this, he received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.[7] 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.[7]

In 1934, Muslim anti-Jewish riots, the 1934 Constantine Pogrom, caused the death of 34 local Jews.[8]

During World War II, during the campaign in North Africa (1942–43), Allied forces used Constantine and the nearby cities of Sétif and Bone as operational bases.

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  Bridge El-Kantara, earliest photo, 1856 by John Beasley Greene
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  Bridge of the Falls
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  Bridge Sidi-M'Cid
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  Bridge Sidi Rached
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  Bridge El-Kantara
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  Constantine:Old city

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,
• El-Kantara bridge which leads toward north,
• Sidi Rached bridge (1912), a long viaduct of 447ms and 27 arches, designed by Paul Séjourné,
• Devil's bridge, a tiny beam bridge,
• Falls bridge, formed by a series of arches on top of a waterfall,
• Perregaux footbridge (1925), a suspension bridge,
• Salah Bey Bridge (Trans-Rhummel viaduct, 2014), the first cable-stayed bridge in Constantine, designed by Dissing+Weitling architecture,
• Meddjez Dechiche Bridge