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Casbah of Algiers
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How it came to be
In antiquity a Phoenician trading post stood on the islets off Algiers; later came the Roman town of Icosium. In the 10th century Bologhine ibn Ziri of the Zirid dynasty founded a town on the ruins and called it al-Jaza'ir, Arabic for the islets.
In the 16th century, after Spain seized the islet in front of the harbour, the town's leader called in the corsair Aruj Barbarossa. In 1529 his brother Hayreddin Barbarossa drove the Spanish off the islet, and the town became capital of the Regency of Algiers. The citadel on the hilltop was built between 1516 and 1592, and inside walls raised at the end of the 16th century grew a dense old town of mosques, palaces, baths and souks.
French troops entered Algiers in 1830 and demolished much of the lower town. During the Algerian War the Casbah was a stronghold of the FLN independence fighters. Still home to about 50,000 people, it was inscribed in 1992.
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