Algiers - City of Algeria

Algiers 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.

The modern part of the city is built on the level ground by the seashore; the old part, the ancient city of the deys, climbs the steep hill behind the modern town and is crowned by the casbah or citadel, 400 feet (122 m) above the sea. The casbah and the two quays form a triangle.

A Phoenician commercial outpost called Ikosim which later developed into a small Roman town called Icosium existed on what is now the marine quarter of the city. The rue de la Marine follows the lines of what used to be a Roman street. Roman cemeteries existed near Bab-el-Oued and Bab Azoun. The city was given Latin rights by Vespasian. The bishops of Icosium are mentioned as late as the 5th century.

The history of Algiers from 1815 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 consul 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.

Having hosted the All-Africa Games in 1978, Algiers will again host the games in 2007. Algiers is also the "Capital of Arabic Culture" for 2007.

Algeria achieved independence on July 5, 1962. Run by the military that had liberated it, Algiers became a member of Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War. In October 1988, one year before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Algiers was the site of demonstrations demanding the end of the single party system and the creation of a real democracy baptized the “Spring of Algiers”. The demonstrators were repressed by the authorities, but the movement constituted a turning point in the political history of modern Algeria. In 1989, a new constitution was adopted that put an end to the reign of the single party and saw the creation of more than fifty political parties, as well as official freedom of the press.

Principal clubs of association football of the city:

MC Alger
USM Alger
CR Belouizdad
NA Hussein Dey
Paradou AC
USM El Harrach
RC Kouba
OMR El Annasser

Algiers already accommodated the following sporting events (not-exhaustive list):

Mediterranean Games 1975.
All-Africa Games 1978, 2007.
African Cup of Nations 1990.
African Handball Nations Championship 1989, 2001.
Pan Arab Games 2004.
FIBA Africa Championship 2005.
Men's U19 World Championship 2005.