Algiers (Arabic: الجزائر, Algerian Arabic: Dzayer ([dzæjer] (From kabyle pronunciation[verification needed]), Kabyle: Ledzayer [ldzæjər], French: Alger, is the capital and largest city of Algeria, and the second largest city in the Maghreb (behind Casablanca). According to the 2005 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570; for the urban area was 2,135,630; for the metropolitan area 3,518,083; and for Algiers Province as a whole 5,723,749 (2006). Thus the urban area of Greater Algiers is one of the largest in North Africa.
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, Algiers 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.
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 made up of Spaniards, was defeated by the Algerians under their Pasha, Hassan. Formally part of the Ottoman Empire but essentially free from Ottoman control, starting in the 17th century Algiers turned to piracy and ransoming. Due to its location 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, piracy became the primary economic activity. 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, destroying the corsair fleet harboured in Algiers.
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, under the pretext of an affront to the French consul — whom the dey had hit with a fly-whisk when the counsul 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.
Even the better Teresa. Actually your captures are such universally speaking that we do not need to get lost in words at all. Big Polish like hug from Paul
Hi dear Nicki, glad that you liked this one. Can you imagine that I saw this last January from my hotel in Algiers, waiting in front of the elevator. I had to wake up early going to teach my class. Oh yes nearly everybody was off in France yesterday, but I had to work very hard "on a beach" somewhere else, ha, ha. Warm and Sunny hugs from me, Paul
Thank you Michele, I'm glad that you enjoyed the view. I wish you looking outside your window this morning and see all the beauty again, hugs and kisses Paul
Great capture of the light in the frame of the building. Great about. thanks for taking the time to share such wonderful info. Truly magic light. Be well, Stan
Wonderful framed my dear Paul!!! Fantastic colors..with such colors the day has to start WELL:)))))What a great view,so well composed and your presentation is as always amazing!!With your about I learn from day to day more..:))))Thank you for this my dear friend!! Have a wonderful sunny day in Paris...I guess that you are off today..so enjoy it!!! Warm hugs, Nicki
What a lovely image dear Paul with the natural framing and the soft colors and tones of the beautiful view from inside this frame - so lovely to view my dear Paul - Hugs, Michele~
You are welcome :-) Real world is equally breathtaking for my camera and me nowadays, we are such close that nobody ever can get in between us. Enjoy your day my dear Bixie. Hugs from Paul
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{K:22477} 5/12/2010
