Béjaïa
| Béjaïa بجاية ⴱⴳⴰⵢⴻⵜ | |
|---|---|
| City | |
.jpg) | |
_location_map.svg.png) Location of Béjaïa, Algeria within Béjaïa Province | |
  Béjaïa Location of Béjaïa, Algeria within Béjaïa Province | |
| Coordinates: 36°45′N 5°04′E / 36.750°N 5.067°ECoordinates: 36°45′N 5°04′E / 36.750°N 5.067°E | |
| Country |
 Algeria |
| Province | Béjaïa Province |
| District | Béjaïa District |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Hannache Tahar (2008-2012) |
| Area | |
| • Total | 120.22 km2 (46.42 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 949 m (3,114 ft) |
| Population (2008 census) | |
| • Total | 177,988 |
| • Density | 1,500/km2 (3,800/sq mi) |
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) |
| Postal code | 06000 |
Béjaïa (Berber: Bgayet, ⴱⴳⴰⵢⴻⵜ), formerly Bougie and Bugia, is a Mediterranean port city on the Gulf of Béjaïa in Algeria; it is the capital of Béjaïa Province, Kabylia. Béjaïa is the largest city in the Kabylian region, and is one of the largest principally Berber-speaking cities of Algeria.
Geography
The town is overlooked by the mountain Yemma Gouraya, whose profile is said to resemble a sleeping woman; other nearby scenic spots include the Aiguades beach and the Pic des Singes (Monkey Peak); the latter site is a habitat for the endangered Barbary macaque, which prehistorically had a much broader distribution than at present. All three of these geographic features are contained in the Gouraya National Park. The Soummam river runs past the town.
Under French rule, it was formerly known under various European names, such as Budschaja in German, Bugia in Italian, and Bougie [buˈʒi] (the latter two being words for candle, derived from the town name because of its wax trade).[1]
History
Béjaïa stands on the site of the ancient city of Saldae, a minor port in Carthaginian and Roman times in an area at first inhabited by Numidian Berbers and founded as a veteran colony by emperor Augustus. It was an important town in the province of Mauretania Caesariensis, and the later Sitifensis.
In the 5th century, Saldae became the capital of the short-lived Vandal Kingdom of the Germanic Vandals, which ended in about 533 with the Byzantine conquest, which established an African prefecture and later the Exarchate of Carthage. After the 7th-century Arab conquest, Saldae declined and had practically disappeared by the end of the first millennium. In the 11th century, it was refounded as "Béjaïa" by the Berber Hammadid dynasty, made it their capital, and it became an important port and centre of culture.
With the spread of Christianity, Saldae became a bishopric. Its bishop Paschasius was one of the Catholic bishops whom the Arian Vandal king Huneric summoned to Carthage in 484 and then exiled. No longer a residential bishopric, Saldae is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[2] This titular see was at one time called Bugia, the Italian form of Béjaïa. This was the form of the title borne by George Hilary Brown, titular bishop of Bugia from 5 June 1840 until 22 April 1842, when he became bishop of Liverpool. Christianity survived the Arab conquest, the disappearance of the old city of Saldae, and the founding of the new city of Béjaïa. A letter of Pope Gregory VII (1073–1085) exists, addressed to clero et populo Buzee (the clergy and people of Béjaïa), in which he writes of the consecration of a bishop named Servandus for Christian north Africa.[3][4][5]
The son of a Pisan merchant (and probably consul), posthumously known as Fibonacci (c. 1170 – c. 1250), there learned under the Almohad dynasty about Indian mathematics which he called Modus Indorum , Hindu-Arabic numerals, and introduced them and modern mathematics into medieval Europe.[6] A mathematical-historical analysis of Fibonacci's context and proximity to Béjaïa, an important exporter of wax in his time, has suggested that it was actually the bee-keepers of Béjaïa and the knowledge of the bee ancestries that truly inspired the Fibonacci numbers rather than the rabbit reproduction model as presented in his famous book Liber Abaci.[7]
In 1315, Raymond Lully died as a result of being stoned at Béjaïa,[3][4] where, a few years before, Peter Armengaudius (Peter Armengol) is reputed to have been hanged.[4][8]
In the 13th century Béjaïa was acquired by the Hafsid Empire when the dynasty took control of Tunis. Pirates were active along the Barbary Coast starting in the 16th century.[9]
After a Spanish occupation (1510–55), the city was taken by the Ottoman Turks in the Capture of Bougie in 1555. Until it was captured by the French in 1833, Béjaïa was a stronghold of the Barbary pirates (see Barbary States). The city consisted of Kabyle Berbers, Arabic-speaking Moors, Moriscos and Jews, increased by Jewish refugees from Spain.
City landmarks include a 16th-century mosque and a casbah (fortress) built by the Spanish in 1545.
A picture of the Orientalist painter Maurice Boitel, who painted in the city for a while, can be found in the museum of Béjaïa.
Battle of Béjaïa
During World War II, Operation Torch landed forces in North Africa, including a battalion of the British Royal West Kent Regiment at Béjaïa on November 11, 1942.
That same day, at 4:40 PM, a German Luftwaffe air raid struck Béjaïa with thirty Ju-88 bombers and torpedo planes. The transports Awatea and Cathay were sunk and the monitor HMS Roberts was damaged. The following day, the anti-aircraft ship SS Tynwald hit a mine and sunk, while the transport Karanja was bombed and destroyed. [10]
Climate
Béjaïa, like most cities along the coast of Algeria, has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csa), with very warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters.
| Climate data for Béjaïa | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 27.7 (81.9) |
32.0 (89.6) |
37.0 (98.6) |
33.0 (91.4) |
37.3 (99.1) |
42.8 (109) |
44.7 (112.5) |
47.6 (117.7) |
42.5 (108.5) |
40.0 (104) |
37.4 (99.3) |
33.0 (91.4) |
47.6 (117.7) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 16.4 (61.5) |
16.8 (62.2) |
17.7 (63.9) |
19.3 (66.7) |
22.0 (71.6) |
25.3 (77.5) |
28.7 (83.7) |
29.3 (84.7) |
27.8 (82) |
24.3 (75.7) |
20.3 (68.5) |
16.9 (62.4) |
22.07 (71.7) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 12.1 (53.8) |
12.3 (54.1) |
13.1 (55.6) |
14.7 (58.5) |
17.6 (63.7) |
21.0 (69.8) |
24.0 (75.2) |
24.8 (76.6) |
23.2 (73.8) |
19.7 (67.5) |
15.8 (60.4) |
12.7 (54.9) |
17.58 (63.66) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 7.7 (45.9) |
7.6 (45.7) |
8.5 (47.3) |
10.1 (50.2) |
13.1 (55.6) |
16.6 (61.9) |
19.3 (66.7) |
20.2 (68.4) |
18.5 (65.3) |
15.0 (59) |
11.2 (52.2) |
8.4 (47.1) |
13.02 (55.44) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −1.0 (30.2) |
−4.0 (24.8) |
−0.1 (31.8) |
2.0 (35.6) |
5.8 (42.4) |
7.8 (46) |
13.0 (55.4) |
11.0 (51.8) |
11.0 (51.8) |
8.0 (46.4) |
1.6 (34.9) |
−2.4 (27.7) |
−4 (24.8) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 99.7 (3.925) |
85.9 (3.382) |
100.4 (3.953) |
70.7 (2.783) |
41.2 (1.622) |
16.2 (0.638) |
5.8 (0.228) |
13.0 (0.512) |
40.4 (1.591) |
89.5 (3.524) |
99.7 (3.925) |
135.0 (5.315) |
797.5 (31.398) |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 78.5 | 77.6 | 77.9 | 77.9 | 79.9 | 76.9 | 75.0 | 74.6 | 76.4 | 76.3 | 75.3 | 76.0 | 76.86 |
| Source #1: NOAA (1968-1990)[11] | |||||||||||||
| Source #2: climatebase.ru (extremes, humidity)[12] | |||||||||||||
Demography
The population of the city in 2005 was 187,076, while the population of the whole wilaya (province) was 905,000.[13]
| Year | Population | Year | Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1901 | 14,600 | 1954 | 43,900 |
| 1906 | 17,500 | 1960 | 63,000 |
| 1911 | 10,000 | 1966 | 49,900 |
| 1921 | 19,400 | 1974 | 104,000 |
| 1926 | 15,900 | 1977 | 74,000 (town) 89,500 (municipality) |
| 1931 | 25,300 | 1987 | 114,500 |
| 1936 | 30,700 | 1998 | 144,400 |
| 1948 | 28,500 |
Economy
The northern terminus of the Hassi Messaoud oil pipeline from the Sahara, Béjaïa is the principal oil port of the Western Mediterranean. Exports, aside from crude petroleum, include iron, phosphates, wines, dried figs, and plums. The city also has textile and cork industries.
Cevital has its head office in the city.[15]
Education
University of Béjaïa is located in the city.
Friendly relationship
Béjaïa has an official friendly relationship (protocole d'amitié) with:[16]
Brest, France, since 1995
References
- ↑ "Bougie (n)". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
Etymology: < French bougie wax candle, < Bougie (Arabic Bijiyah), a town in Algeria which carried on a trade in wax
Available online to subscribers - ↑ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 963
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Stefano Antonio Morcelli, Africa christiana, Volume I, Brescia 1816, p. 269
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 H. Jaubert, Anciens évêchés et ruines chrétiennes de la Numidie et de la Sitifienne, in Recueil des Notices et Mémoires de la Société archéologique de Constantine, vol. 46, 1913, pp. 127-129
- ↑ J. Mesnage, L'Afrique chrétienne, Paris 1912, pp. 8 e 268-269
- ↑ Stephen Ramsay, Reading Machines: Toward an Algorithmic Criticism, (University of Illinois Press, 2011), 64.
- ↑ Scott, T.C.; Marketos, P. (March 2014), On the Origin of the Fibonacci Sequence (PDF), MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews
- ↑ J. Frank Henderson, "Moslems and the Roman Catholic Liturgical Calendar. Documentation" (2003), p. 18
- ↑ Béjaïa & the Corniche Kabyle, Morocco, Algeria & Tunisia: a travel survival kit, Geoff Crowther & Hugh Finlay, Lonely Planet, 2nd Edition, April 1992, p. 292.
- ↑ Atkinson 2002.
- ↑ "Climate Normals for Béjaïa". Retrieved 11 February 2013.
- ↑ "Béjaïa, Algeria". Climatebase.ru. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
- ↑
- ↑ populstat.info
- ↑ "Cevital & vous." Cevital. Retrieved on 26 August 2011. "Adresse : Nouveau Qaui Port de -Béjaïa - Algérie"
- ↑ Elkhadra bejaia
Atkinson, An Army At Dawn
Related people
External links
 |
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Béjaïa . |
Media related to Béjaïa at Wikimedia Commons
- (French) Bgayet.Net
- (French) History of Béjaïa
- Google map of Béjaïa
|
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Béjaïa, Algeria. |