The city of Constantine in Algeria is the native and, moreover, the elder brother of Constantinople, New Rome, and now Istanbul. The city was founded in the II century BC by the Phoenicians and named it Seva -"Royal Castle". Later it was called Tsirta (translated as a city)and under this name went down in history as the capital of Numidia - New Africa. The Roman period begins in the I century BC, and the city receives the name of Constantine in 311 AD, when it was restored after numerous wars by Constantine the Great, whose name bears to this day.
The city was part of the Byzantine Empire for several centuries, and from the VII century it became a major Arab trading center. In the XVI century, the city went under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and was actively built in the next two centuries. In the middle of the XIX century, Constantine became a French colony.
Today Constantine is a Muslim city, the architecture of which is a combination of eras: Roman in the form of aqueducts, Arabic with its many narrow streets, French with pompous buildings in the style of Napoleonic France and modern in the form of the usual multi-storey residential buildings.
The famous sights of Constantine are suspension bridges. The city has an unusual location - a plateau of the mountain with a height of 640 meters above sea level and a ravine around the perimeter. Two districts of the city are built on neighboring peaks, and between them lies a gorge. To connect the city, bridges were built. The people call Constantine the "City of Seven Bridges", which is incorrect, because there are much more bridges. More correct would be "City of Suspension Bridges".
When old buildings fell into disrepair, new bridges were built, assigning the role of ancient monuments to their predecessors.
Today there are 4 operating bridges in the city: Sidi M'Sid, El Kantara, Sidi Rashed and devil's Bridge.
- The giant bridge of its time is Sidi M'Sid. It was built in 1912 according to the project of the French engineer Ferdinand Arnauden: then the bridge with a height of 175 meters was the highest in the world. The bridge lasted almost a hundred years, only in 2000 it was overhauled.
- There are two bridges of El Kantara in Constantine. The modern one was built by the French on the site of an old bridge of the Ottoman period. And the very first bridge of El Qantara was built by the Romans - and this is the oldest bridge of the city, it is now located under the modern one.
- The half-kilometer-long Sidi Rashed Bridge connects the city centre and the railway station. The bridge was built according to the project of the French builder Abein Ayrault. At the beginning of the XX century, the bridge was the tallest concrete bridge in the world.
- Not differing in size and design, a small pedestrian bridge impresses with its name - devil's Bridge. It is not known for certain what the origin of the name is connected with, but it is interesting that there are many Devil's Bridges in Europe. Each bridge is accompanied by a legend of a mystical contract with the devil. Bridge builders joke that sometimes you have to overcome unthinkable obstacles in construction - and not averse to such a contract to conclude.
Of course, the bridges over the abyss are fascinating, becoming the main attractions. But the city of Constantine is full of other interesting places, including museums, mosques and Roman ruins.
