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Constantine, Algeria, Algeria

Helen Quincy

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Constantine is one of Algeria's principal cities and an industrial centre for the production of leather goods and linen and wool textiles. It is spectacularly set upon a stone mountain overlooking the Rhumel Gorges 200m below which are spanned by four bridges. The site of Constantine was first settled by Phoenician traders and called Cirta. In 203BC Cirta became the capital of Numidia during the reign of the Berber chieftain Massinissa and eventually came under Roman domination. Roman influence over Cirta continued for centuries.

During the first years of the Christian Era, Cirta prospered as part of a confederation of Roman city-states and eventually as a colony of Cuicul, site of the city of Djemila, becoming one of the wealthiest cities in all of North Africa. During the 4th century the town was destroyed as the result of an uprising, but rebuilt by the Emperor Constantine who gave the city its modern name.