Constantine & the East

The east was the core of Numidia. Cirta, on its rock above the Rhumel gorge, was the capital of the Numidian kings: Masinissa allied with Rome against Carthage, and his grandson Jugurtha fought Rome in the war that bears his name. Under Roman rule the region became a rich grain land, and colonies such as Timgad, founded around 100 AD for army veterans, and Djémila, Roman Cuicul, spread across the plateaus. Cirta was rebuilt and renamed after the emperor Constantine in the early 4th century. Augustine was born at Thagaste, modern Souk Ahras, in 354 and was bishop of Hippo Regius until his death in 430, while the Vandals besieged the city. The Byzantines later rebuilt Theveste, modern Tébessa, as a fortress.

The Aurès mountains held out under Berber leaders, including the queen known as the Kahina, who resisted the Arab conquest in the late 7th century. Constantine later passed between Berber dynasties before becoming the seat of the Ottoman beylik of the east, whose last bey, Ahmed, built his palace there and resisted France until the city fell in 1837.

The east saw two defining moments of the colonial era. On 8 May 1945, police fire on a nationalist demonstration in Sétif set off riots in which about a hundred European settlers were killed, followed by a mass repression around Sétif, Guelma and Kherrata in which thousands of Algerians were killed; the death toll is still disputed. On 1 November 1954 the War of Independence began with coordinated attacks, many of them in the Aurès, and the mountains remained a guerrilla stronghold until 1962.

Constantine regards itself as the country's scholarly and religious capital, the city of Abdelhamid Ben Badis, founder of the reformist Association of Algerian Muslim Ulama in 1931. It is conservative and proud, with an old bourgeoisie, a tradition of malouf — the Andalusian classical music played with oud, violin and darbouka — and craftsmen who still hammer copper trays in the old town. Women's traditional dress is the gandoura of Constantine, a dress of embroidered velvet, and a black veil, the mlaya, was once worn by older women in the city.

The Aurès, around Batna and Khenchela, is the land of the Chaoui, Berber speakers with their own dialect, music of reed flute and bendir drum, and songs popularised by singers such as Aïssa Djermouni. Mountain villages are built of stone and earth on cliff edges, and the memory of 1954 is central to local pride. Annaba, by contrast, is a busy port city with a looser, Mediterranean manner, and Sétif is known for trade and for its football club.

Religious life is Sunni Islam of the Maliki school, and Friday prayer, Ramadan evenings and family weddings with musicians and henna nights shape the calendar across the region.

Constantine is the east's main city, with several hundred thousand people in the city and a new town, Ali Mendjeli, built on the plateau to the south. Sétif, Annaba, Batna, Bordj Bou Arréridj, Skikda, Tébessa and Jijel are all large towns, and the east as a whole is one of Algeria's most populous regions.

The economy is broad. Annaba has the El Hadjar steelworks and a phosphate and mining port; Skikda has a large petrochemical and gas terminal; Sétif and Bordj Bou Arréridj are centres of commerce and light industry, and Bordj Bou Arréridj has grown into a hub for electronics assembly. The high plains grow wheat and barley and raise sheep, while Jijel and El Tarf live from fishing, cork oak forests and summer tourism.

Days start early, markets are crowded in the mornings, and the cafés fill after work. Constantine's centre, hemmed in by its gorge, suffers from crumbling old buildings and congestion, and many families have moved to new housing on the edge of the city. Youth unemployment and emigration are concerns here as across Algeria.

Constantine has one of Algeria's most elaborate kitchens. Its signature dish is chakhchoukha, pieces of thin torn flatbread soaked in a spiced sauce of lamb, chickpeas and tomato, also claimed by Biskra. Other favourites include djari frik, the green-wheat soup of Ramadan, trida, a hand-made pasta of the north-east, and chbah essafra, a sweet tagine of lamb and fried almond-paste fritters in a cinnamon-scented sauce, served at weddings and in Ramadan.

Sweets are a point of civic pride: baklawa, makroud stuffed with dates, and many almond pastries fill trays at weddings and Eid, and rfiss, a crumbled semolina flatbread moistened with butter, milk and honey, is eaten across the east. Couscous is eaten on Fridays, often with a mutton and vegetable stew.

In the Aurès, the food is plainer and heartier — couscous with dried meat, flatbreads, butter, apricots and dates brought up from the desert fringe. On the coast, Annaba and Jijel serve grilled sardines, fried fish and shellfish.

Constantine's bridges are the region's signature: the Sidi M'Cid suspension bridge high above the Rhumel gorge, the stone arches of the Sidi Rached viaduct, the El Kantara bridge and the cable-stayed Salah Bey bridge. The Palace of Ahmed Bey, the old medina, the Emir Abdelkader Mosque and the Monument aux Morts on the far cliff complete a visit, and the Numidian tomb of the Soumaa and the Roman ruins at Tiddis lie nearby.

The Roman cities are among the best in North Africa. Djémila, in Sétif province, has forums, temples, an arch and a mosaic museum on a sloping ridge; Timgad, near Batna, has its grid of streets, Trajan's Arch and a theatre. Tébessa has a Byzantine wall, the Arch of Caracalla and a large early Christian basilica, and Madauros, near Souk Ahras, was the town of Apuleius.

Annaba holds the ruins of Hippo Regius and the Basilica of Saint Augustine on the hill above them. Around Batna, the Aurès mountains offer the canyon and abandoned cliff villages of Ghoufi, the Numidian royal tomb of Medracen and the cedars of Belezma National Park. The Jijel coast has a corniche of headlands and beaches, Taza National Park and the Grottes Merveilleuses cave, while El Kala National Park in the far east protects lakes and wetlands.