ALGIERS, capital of Algeria, the seat of the governor-general, and of the Algerian assemblies, of a court of appeal, of the XIX Army Corps and of an archbishop. It is built on the west side of the bay of Algiers, 36° 47' N., 3° 4' E., on the slopes of the Sahel hills parallel to the coast and backing on to Mt. Buzareah. The growth of the town has been conditioned by the scarps which approach the coast very closely and by military necessities. Tur kish Algiers was triangular, with the Casbah as its apex and a line of rocky sea-cliffs, now the boulevard de la Republique, as the base. The two other sides are marked by great flights of steps built in the ditches of the Turkish ramparts and leading up, the one to the mosque of Sidi-Abderrahman, the other behind the theatre. French Algiers has grown piece-meal. Buildings now stretch almost without a break for i6km. from north to south.
Modern Algiers is a large city of European type with regular, often arcaded, streets. Many mosques, Janissary-barracks and several fine Moorish houses have gone. The border of the har bour is formed by the boulevard de la Republique, continued north by the boulevard de France and south by the boulevard Carnot. The arches supporting the boulevards stand 15 metres above the quays. The chief official and commercial buildings of Algiers are on these boulevards. The north end of the boulevard de la Re publique, la place du Gouvernement, was long the centre of the town with the roads Bab-el-Oued, Bab-Azoun and la Marine starting from it. The suburb of Bab-el-Wad is peopled mainly by Spaniards and farther north is the suburb of S. Eugene dominated by the basilica of Notre Dame d'Afrique. West of the place du Gouvernement a short street leads to the modern cathedral 6o) on the site of a mosque, the governor's winter palace, and the old palace of the archbishops, the remains of the Jenina or palace of the Dey. Near by is the National Library, in one of the finest Moorish houses of Algiers (1798). The area between the sea, the rue de la Marine and the rue Bab-el-Oued is the Algiers of the conquest and is full of old houses on narrow streets. The busy rue Bab-Azoun leads to the square de la Republique whence start the rue d'Isly and the rue Dumont-d'Urville, the busiest of Algiers' centres of commerce.
The highest part of Algiers, on steeply scarped hills, has pre served best its native character, but it has been disfigured by the cutting of the rue Randon and rue Marengo.
The Casbah fortress, 118 metres above sea-level, belongs to the i6th century and was the residence of the two last Deys, who left Jenina for it. Here Dey Hussein struck the French consul with a fly whisk on April 3o, 1827, whence followed the capture of Algiers and the end of Turkish rule.
Mustapha, once a suburb, then a separate commune, but now reunited to Algiers, has grown very much since the fortifications between it and Algiers were demolished, and the two are now continuous. The lower streets are populous and industrial, the upper ones have villas with fine sea-views. Here also are the Governor's summer palace, the university, and the museums.
Kheir-ed-Din created the old Turkish port of Algiers by build ing a jetty to join the Penon islet to the mainland. This islet re tains the lighthouse, the admiralty building, various buildings of the Turkish period and some of the period of Spanish dominance, and extends north and east of the shallow pool where fishing boats, pleasure boats and torpedo boats are moored. To the south of this pool lies the immense stretch of water of the modern port. Algiers ranks next after Marseille among French ports for ton nage cleared, thanks to vessels calling for coal, and next after Marseille and le Havre for number of ships. In 1926, 1,261,796 tons of merchandise (44% of Algeria's total) were landed and 1,380,056 tons (29% of Algeria's total) exported. Tonnage cleared totalled 2,562,241 tons. Algiers imports coal, cotton goods, metal objects, waggons and automobiles, and exports wine, sheep, skins, fresh vegetables, grapes, potatoes and iron ores. The regular serv ice to Marseille involves a voyage of 497 knots or at present 26 hours, and Algiers is thus 4o hours from Paris.
The importance of Algiers is steadily increasing both from the political and business point of view, and as a place of residence.
The total population (193i) is 257,122, with a municipal popu lation of 246,061 (Europeans 169,257; natives 76,804). With the suburbs which are continuous with Algiers (Buzareah, 3,943 ; El Biar, 11,430; Hussein Dey, 15,152; S. Eugene, 9,410; Maison Carree, 24,341), the greater city has 321,388 inhabitants, about three fourths of European stock.
Geographique du XIXme Corps ; Alger et environs a d'Alger a 1/8.000 (1928) ; Gauckler, Le port d'Alger (1902) ; Docteur Gubb, Promenades a Alger (1921) ; Giauchain, Alger (1922) . Delvert, Le port d'Alger (1923) ; H. Klein, Feuillets d'El-Djezair; R. Lespes, Alger, Esquisse de geographie urbaine (1925) ; Guide bleu d'Algerie et de Tunisie (1927). (A. BE.) History.—InRoman times a small town called Icosium existed where is now the marine quarter of the city. Roman cemeteries existed near the present streets of Bab-el-Oued and Bab-Azoun. Bishops of Icosium are mentioned as late as the 5th century. The present city was founded in 944 by Bulukkin b. Zeiri, the founder of the Zeirid-Sanhaja dynasty, which was overthrown by Roger II. of Sicily in 1148. (See FATIMITES.) The Zeirids 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-Wahid, 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, however, continued of comparatively little im portance until after the expulsion from Spain of the Moors, many of whom sought an asylum in the city. In 151o, following their occupation of Oran and other towns on the coast of Africa, the Spaniards fortified the Penon. In 1516 the amir of Algiers, Selim b. Teumi, invited the brothers Arouj and Khair-ed-Din (Barba rossa) to expel the Spaniards. Arouj came to Algiers, caused Selim to be assassinated, and seized the town. Khair-ed-Din, suc ceeding Arouj, drove the Spaniards from the Penon (153o) and was the founder of the pashalik, afterwards deylik, of Algeria. Algiers from this time became the chief seat of the Barbary pirates. In Oct. 1541 the emperor Charles V. sought to capture the city, but his army was defeated by the Algerians under their pasha, Hassan. Repeated attempts were made by various Euro pean nations to subdue the pirates, and in 1816 the city was bom barded by a British squadron under Lord Exmouth, assisted by Dutch men-of-war, and the corsair fleet burned. The piracy of the Algerians continued until 183o. On July 4 in that year a French army under General de Bourmont attacked the city, which capitu lated on the following day. (X.)