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Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30,221,532 km² (11,668,545 sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area, and 20.4% of the total land area. With more than 900,000,000 people (as of 2005) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. There are 46 countries including Madagascar, and 53 including all the island groups. |
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Béjaïa or Bougie is a Mediterranean port on the Gulf of Béjaïa, capital of Béjaïa Province, northern Algeria. Under French rule, it was formerly known under various European names, such as Budschaja in German, Bugia in Italian, and Bougie /bu'?i/ (both of which are words for 'candle'). Béjaïa is the largest city in Kabylia after Sétif.
History
A minor port in Carthaginian and Roman times, Béjaïa was the Roman Saldae, a veteran colony founded by emperor Vespasian of great importance in the province of Mauretania Caesariensis, later in the fraction Sitifensis. It became the capital of the short-lived African kingdom of the Germanic Vandals (founded in 429-430), which was wiped out circa 533 by the Byzantines who established the African prefecture and later the Exarchate of Carthage. It had disappeared but was refounded by the Berber Hammadid dynasty (whose capital it became) in the 11th century, and became an important port and cultural center. The son of a Pisan merchant (and probably consul), posthumously known as Fibonacci, there learned under the Almohad dynasty about Arabic numerals, and introduced them and modern mathematics into feudal Europe. After a Spanish occupation (1510–55), the city was taken by the Ottoman Turks. Until it was captured by the French in 1833, Bejaïa was a stronghold of the Barbary pirates (see Barbary States).
It was Christianized in the 5th century, became officially Arian under the Vandals, and then Muslim under the Berbers. It was the site of the martyrdom by lapidation of Raymond Lull in 1325 and has also been a titular bishopric.
City landmarks include a 16th-century mosque and a casbah (fortress) built by the Spanish in 1545.
In the museum of Bejaïa can be seen a picture of Orientalist painter Maurice Boitel, who painted in the city for a while.
The town is overlooked by the mountain Lalla Gouraya, whose profile is said to resemble a sleeping woman; other nearby scenic spots include the Pic des Singes (Monkey Peak) and the Zigouates beaches. All three are contained in the Gouraya National Park. The Soummam river runs through the town.
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