Algiers is a metropolis but in the past changed often its shape: it was a Berber city, a Phoenician port, a Roman province, a Carthaginian center, an Arab capital, an Ottoman pearl, a French rationalist metropolis and today aims to become a modern smart city overlooking the Mediterranean.
In fact, the city is now the capital and chief seaport of Algeria other than the political, economic, and cultural center of the country. Algiers is nicknamed “Alger La Blanche”- “Algiers the White” – because of the large amphitheater of glistening white buildings that dominate the bay. However, it takes its name from the Arabic Al-Jazāʾir, which means “The Islands” referring to the several small islands that formerly existed in the bay, which are now connected to the shore or wiped out by harbor works. This glorious plural metropolis holds a rebellious attractiveness that winds its way from the oldest neighborhoods to the buds of the most recent city architecture. In fact, it is divided into two sections: the modern part, built on the level ground by the seashore, and the old Turkish – or Muslim – section, built on the upper slopes of the Sahel Hills. This last one, the ancient city of the deys, is crowned by the casbah or citadel, 122 meters above the sea, and has preserved much of its pristine architectural character, as the fortress of the Kasbah (Qaṣbah), UNESCO World Heritage site.