Talk:Algiers

Untitled

 * Khair-ed-Din (see History, below), who, to accommodate his pirate vessels, caused the island on which was Fort Penon to be connected with the mainland by a mole (architecture).

City Proper
The more research I'm doing, the more I'm finding that Algiers has neither an associated municipal government, nor is there anything that could be considered a city proper. The province is divided into districts, which are further divided into actual city propers which cover metropolitan Algiers. There is no Algiers City, in that respect so this sentence in the beginning paragraph:

"According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570..." jh ted local government for the urban area, or is there not really an Algiers city in terms of local governance? --Criticalthinker (talk) 12:52, 14 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Come on; someone has to know. --Criticalthinker (talk) 03:05, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

province and city
the article Algiers referrences both a coty and a province, I suggest they are seperated --The Brain 11:47, 6 September 2005 (UTC)

Why is Algiers called the islands? There are no visible islands in the vicinity of algiers...--Burgas00 17:38, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

This is really quite a complex question. The name of the city varied in the old times in Arabic: some wrote it "jazayer" others wrote it "zayer" (obviously this is vocal transliterations I'm writing with latin characters). "jazayer" means "the islands" in Arabic. "zayer" means absolutely nothing in Arabic. Anyways... as the city grew powerful in the middle ages it also became the name of the country Algeria (Algeria is called "el jazayer" today in Arabic) like Tunis to the East gave its name to Tunisia and Marakech to the West gave its name to Morocco. The thing is that in Algeria there is an Arab and a Berber culture. Today those who want to promote Arabic identity of Algeria claim that "el jazayer" means "islands" and is a proper Arabic word (just like el jazira, the TV station means "the island" or "the peninsula". singular). Those who want to promote Berber identity claim that in the historical books it was written more like "zayer" originally. So the 2 viewpoints are these: - "zayer", which means absolutely nothing if taken as a noun in Arabic comes from the fact that the man who rebuilt the city was called Ziri. And he was a Berber prince. "Zayer" therefore would mean "Ziri's city". - To make matters worse, those who support Arabic identity and the theory of "the islands" actually have a case too. There used to be 4 small islands in front of the old city which was much smaller than the modern Algiers. The old city was located in the left side of the bay on the satellite picture and it is today the Casbah district of modern Algiers. The islands got linked to the land however over centuries. The last island ceased to exist as an island in the 16th century. It was the one which the Spanish had built a massive fort with an artillery based there, from which they bombed the city continuously in order to obtain it's surrender in the 16th century. When the residents of Algiers captured the fort from the Spanish, they destroyed the fort and used its blocks to link this last island to the city. I think that was around in 1520. Over time therefore, there is no more islands left. So the origin of the name of the city is a matter of discussion between Algerians themselves. The fact that the city gave it's name to the country makes the discussion a national one. And the fact that the government which suppressed Berber culture for a decades took sides with the Arabic theory of "jazayer" (also written djazair in latin characters) has pushed many defendants of Berber culture into the arms of the theory of "zayer" or the Berber prince Buluggin ibn Ziri's city. What exactely is the truth? I personally don't know but I think that its both at the same time. Voilà for this quite Mediteranean dispute over a name :) Cordially, a resident of Algiers 82.101.153.210 06:34, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

The Arabic version has the longer documented history, as Abu Abdullah al-Bakri writing in the 11th century calls it "the islands" belonging some tribe I forget who. And I've also seen it somewhere that the Phoenician name Ikosim meant seagull islands. Anyway, is it not odd that neither Arab nor Berber explanation of the name is given in the article, but another one? MisterCDE 05:28, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Richest city
Algiers is the richest city in the Maghreb, not Casablanca. Anwar 14:57, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Years 2000
Nowadays, in 2007, Algiers wants to become again a large capital African and Mediterranean Sea, planning to have a level of development of the infrastructures comparable with that which it had in 1962. It undertakes an opening towards the world by organizing many demonstrations and international conferences. Algiers has attracted thus for a few years of great multinationals such as Crossroads, Yves Rocher, or Quick. Many great projects of realization of infrastructures such as subway of Algiers, it tram like various projects of urban reorganization, of creation of new satellite urban centres, pain to be born, though they should have been completed there is more than 15 years: Algiers is in full urban development, moved by a need for assertion at the regional level in its fight to compete with the other North-African cities of Tunisia and of Morocco. For the year 2007, Algiers is capital “Arab culture”. On April 11, 2007, one Attacks of Algiers of April 11, 2007 double atttendants to the bomb aims at the palate of the government (where seat the Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior Department) and the police station of Bab-Ezzouar. These attacks are asserted by Organization Al-Qaïda in the Islamic Maghreb.

I can't make head or tail of this. Perhaps a machine translation. Rmhermen 01:25, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

'The Largest city in the Maghreb'
If I am comparing the cities/ urban areas/ metropolitan areas of both Algiers and Casablanca, than Casablanca is coming out as the 'largest' (in terms of population). So I changed the sentence that 'the urban area of Algiers is the largest in the Maghreb', to 'the urban area of Algiers is one of the largest in the Maghreb (behind Casablanca)'. --Robster1983 15:15, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

Machine translation?
It looks like this is a machine translation of the french article, like the article about Oran. I think it should be reverted to this revision, or any similair revision, until we get a "human translation"? --escon dites  22:50, 2 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I've done some extensive copy editing of the article, particularly the history section. I am posting my translation of the "Years 2000" section that looked like a google translation of the equivalent section of the French article on Algiers.  I removed some info and POV but a translation can't work miracles, the source text itself is not the greatest... Anyways, here it is, let me know what you think.


 * Algiers in the 21st Century
 * Today, in 2007, Algiers is seeking to once again become an important African and Mediterranean capital, envisioning having a comparable level of infrastructure development to what it had in 1962 relative to other countries. Algiers is opening itself up to the world by hosting a variety of international conferences and events.  This new openness has attracted the investment of a number of multinational companies in recent years, such as:  Carrefour, Yves Rocher, and even Quick.  However, many large infrastructure projects are struggling to be completed:  the Algiers subway, the tramway, urban renewal projects, the creation of new urban centers on the periphery.  The current infrastructure has not been able to keep up with Algier's rapid growth.


 * 2007 has brought mixed results for Algiers. On the postive side the city has been named the capital of "Arab culture" for 2007.  On the negative side, a double bombing attack ocurred on April 11 with one bomb targeting the government building housing the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior; and another bomb targeting the police station in Bab-Ezzouar.  The attacks were claimed by an organization calling themselves the Maghreb branch of Al-Qaida.


 * Algiers is currently ranked lowest out of 132 capitals in the Economist Intellegince Unit's quality of life survey. The survey takes into consideration 40 different criteria divided into 5 categories:  stability, health services, culture and environment, education, and the availability of basic services.  Algiers was ranked lower than such cities as Karachi (Pakistan), Tripoli (Libya), Abidjan (Côte-d'Ivoire), and even Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.  In 2005 the same survey ranked Algiers 125th out of 129 cities.  Vrac 07:17, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Someone needs to do some major editing here....
This is terrible. The grammar and punctuation in the later parts are atrocious. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.247.165.195 (talk) 21:17, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. Look at the paragraph under "Sports" for instance. - Jack Vermicelli 2warped@gmail.com 98.243.83.191 (talk) 21:12, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

"...and largest city of Algeria and the second largest city in North Africa..."
The article says:


 * "...and largest city of Algeria and the second largest city in North Africa behind Casablanca, Morocco."

Has Cairo been sold to Europe?

Come on people!

4.240.87.252 (talk) 01:38, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

who'd want to buy cairo? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.49.210.37 (talk) 17:15, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

Square Kilometers
I'm sure someone must know; what is the area of Algiers in square kilometers/miles? That needs to be added to the infobox. --Criticalthinker (talk) 11:01, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Okay, I'll get my measuring tape.

John McIntyre
This article is being discussed in a column by John McIntyre. The part was added back in 2007 by User:December 21, 2012, who is now blocked. (and judging from his talk, he has caused more trouble in this article). Can someone clean it up ? --Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 15:21, 12 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I have removed the word salad in question. Lumos3 (talk) 12:37, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

Economy
Algiers is an important economic, commercial and financial center, with in particular a stock exchange with a capitalisation of 60 billion euros. ==> 60 billion euros ! That's not true, the capitalisation is of about 60 million euros, not billions. See http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourse_d%27Alger (in french)

This needs editing.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.76.85.141 (talk) 01:54, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

1936 Algiers invitational tournament
The second reference provided previously was a url to that now seems to be a dead. This has been replaced by a live weblink.

Also the 1st reference provided on the tournament while perfectly valid cannot be verified without a copy of the book referenced. The weblink mentioned in the previous paragraph to replace the deadlink not only verifies the book reference but also contains an image of the tournament program.

History
History seems a little thin as if Algiers springs into existence during the middle ages. Nothing more on the Phoenicians? The Romans built a street and a cemetery? That's it? What about ancient man? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.81.159.117 (talk) 06:58, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

Pronunciation
Could someone please indicate the English pronunciation of "Algiers"? Having the French pronunciation of "Alger" is nice, but I find the English pronunciation even more relevant to an article in the English Wikipedia. Thanks, --Haspelmath (talk) 16:29, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Done. .  Couple of refs in case they're needed: M-W, dictionary.com. Lfh (talk) 14:10, 14 January 2010 (UTC)


 * The English pronunciation isn't very unusual and so belongs at the Wiktionary entry . The French pronunciation, as you noticed, is entirely irrelevant given that it's an Algerian town now and belongs at the Wiktionary entry, all the moreso since it's unsourced. — Llywelyn II   23:52, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

Twin cities
Why Algiers is a twin of Cairo? —Preceding unsigned comment added by EgyTig (talk • contribs) 14:54, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

No night photos
Please add one night photo in the article. -- Extra999 (talk) 18:00, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Sources for article expansion
Some books with mention of Algiers's early history: Cities in the Middle East. Encyclopedia of Islam. Historic Cities of the Islamic World. The Places Where Men Pray Together. — LlywelynII  02:52, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

Coordinates
The Coordinates in the info box, 36°42′N 3°13′E, are for the airport. I'd guess 36°46′N 3°3′E as reflecting the centre, but someone who knows the place might want to pick a good centre of the city. Jlittlenz (talk) 04:01, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

Etymology
The Berber origin theory is clearly a fringe theory. See the talk page for Algeria for more details. --91.148.130.233 (talk) 15:09, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

The Berber origin theory is not fringe at all. Despite wanting to think of themselves as Arabs and descended from Arab invaders, the majority of Maghrebi "Arabs" in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria are overwhelmingly genetically Berber in their DNA.

In fact, in some parts of the Maghreb (e.g. in Tunisia or Kabylie), there is just as much genetic influence from Western Europeans as there is for Arabs, likely from Vandal times.

PowerToTheWest (talk) 01:47, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

Source
Demographics - "The ethnic distribution is 53% from an Arabic-speaking background, 44% from a Berber-speaking background and 3% foreign-born, mostly from China, Vietnam, and Mali." Can anyone find a source for this information? --J intela (talk) 14:54, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

Timeline of Algiers
What is missing from the recently created city timeline article? Please add relevant content. Contributions welcome. Thank you. -- M2545 (talk) 14:55, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 07:17, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

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Mesgana family
Some old sources claim that the city was founded by the Mesgana family, who gave their name to the city (search) but the article doesn't mention this name. Is this dated information that has been replaced by newer evidence, or what? Mathglot (talk) 03:25, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

Demonym
The term demonym is never used in this article, and I think I understand why: the situation is rather confusing. In French, the term algerien originally meant someone from Algiers, and it retained that meaning until around 1892, when algerois took over that meaning, and is still used today for inhabitants of the city. In English, there is the ambiguous Algerian, and in older sources, Algerine. For sources and more details on this, see Talk:Algeria. We have Tangierian in English for residents of Tangiers, but the analogous situation for Algiers yields the ambiguous Algerian, and I suspect that's why it's not covered. Mathglot (talk) 22:44, 29 January 2024 (UTC)