ALGIERS' (Arabic, Al-jezira, the island), the capital of Algeria, was built about 935 A.D. by an Arab chief. It rises from the sea-shore up the sides of a precipitous hill in the form of an equilateral triangle. The apex is formed by the Casbah, the ancient fortress of the deys, which is 500 ft. above the sea-level, and commands the whole town. The base is a mile in length. The present city may be regarded as divided into two parts: the old, or high town; and the new, or low town. With the exception of some mosques, the latter consists of wharfs, warehouses, government houses, squares, and streets, principally built and inhabited by the French, while the former is almost wholly Moorish both in its edifices and inhabitants. The great center of bustle and activity in A. is the Place Royale--a large oblong space in the center of the town, planted with orange and lime trees, and surrounded by houses in the European style. Here may be found as motley a crowd as anywhere in the world, denizens of all nations—Arabs, Moors, Jews, French, Spaniards, ISIaltese, Germans, Italians, etc. The city is intersected by two large parallel streets, Bab-el-Ouad and Bab-azoun, running n. and s. for more than half a mile. They are flanked by colonnades, but are very narrow, and therefore incon venient for traffic; as promenades, however, nothing could be more agreeable. In 1833, A. had upwards of 100 mosques and marabouts. The mosques are divided into two classes—the djamas, or principal mosques, and the mesjids, or inferior mosques. The marabouts are the tombs and sanctuaries of saints. Everywhere A. wears the aspect of a rising colonial city. Other towns in the province still retain their oriental character, with the exception of a few military buildings; but the new town of A. might deceive the traveler into the belief that he is still in Europe, were it not for the throng of swarthy faces he meets. The streets are regular, spacious, and elegant; some of them as handsome as the Parisian boulevards, and adorned with arcades. The shops, too, are occasionally very good. The houses are in some instances five stories high, which,
though it gives a massive and imposing appearance to the city, is yet a very perilous innovation in a place which has suffered dreadfully from earthquakes.
But perhaps greater interest attaches to the old Moorish town, which is connected with the new by a steep, narrow, jagged-looking street called the Casbah, leading down from the fortress of the deys. The houses are square, substantial, flat-roofed; rise irregularly oue over the other, and have no windows, but only peep-holes, which are intended to exclude impertinent eyes, and are therefore fortified with iron gratings instead of glass, so that the houses have a very prison-like appearance. Although the streets at first contrast unfavorably with those of Europe, on account of their narrowness, the coolness which this secures soon reconciles the traveler to other inconveniences. The inhabitants have recourse to their flat roofs or terraces in the evening, to enjoy the delicious sea breeze. The French have introduced many useful reforms. There are conduits in every part of the city, public baths, coffee-houses, hotels, omnibuses, etc. The markets are held in the squares de Chartres. Mahon, and d'Isly. Horse-racing is the great amuse ment. The Arabs are passionately fond of it. The French have also improved, at great expense and labor, the port, which was in a precarious condition. The town has supreme courts of justice, a clitimber and tribunal of commerce, a college and schools, a Catholic cathedral and several churches, a French Protestant church, a synagogue, a bazaar for the exhibition of native industry, theaters, and banks.
A., which had been wretchedly misgoverned by a long succession of Turkish deys, fell into the hands of the French in 1830 (see ALGERIA), who swept away every trace of the ferocious despotism that had prevailed. The Turks withdrew in great numbers to Tunis and Alexandria Pop. in '72, 48,908. The trade of A. in 1873 in British vessels alone amounted in exports to £129,700: in imports to £140,220.