Cherchell

The Museum of Cherchell has many mosaics (like this one about viticulture) showing the riches of Caesarea

Phoenicians established their first major wave of colonies on the coasts between their homeland and the Strait of Gibraltar in the 8th century BC, but Iol was probably established around 600 BC[13] and the oldest remains so far discovered at Cherchell date from the 5th century BC.[14] By that time, Carthage had already taken control of the Phoenicians in the western Mediterranean. Punic Iol was one of the more important trading posts in what is now Algeria. In the 3rd century BC, it was fortified[14] and began issuing Numidia's first coins in bronze and silver, bearing Punic text, Carthaginian gods, and images of local produce, particularly fish.[15]

After the Punic Wars, Carthage's holdings in northwest Africa were mostly given to Rome's local allies. Iol was given to Micipsa, the king of Numidia, who first established it as a royal court.[13] It became an important city for the kingdom and was the primary capital for Bocchus I and II. The town minted its own coins and received new defensive works in the 1st century BC. Its Punic culture continued, but worship of Baal Hammon was notionally substituted with worship of his Roman equivalent Saturn.[7]

Iol was annexed directly to Rome in 33 BC.[14] Augustus established Juba II as king of Mauretania in 25 BC, giving him the city as his capital, which Juba then renamed in his honor.[7] Juba and his wife Cleopatra (the daughter of Mark Antony and Cleopatra of Egypt) rebuilt the city on a lavish scale, combining Roman and Hellenized Egyptian styles. The roads were relaid on a grid and amenities included a theater, an art gallery,[14] and a lighthouse modeled after the Pharos in Alexandria. He probably began the Roman wall that ran for about 7 kilometers (4 mi) around a space of about 400 hectares (988 acres); about 150 of that total was used for the settlement in antiquity.[12] The royal couple were buried in the Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania. The seaport capital and its kingdom flourished during this period, with most of the population being of Greek and Phoenician origin with a minority of Berbers.

Their son Ptolemy was assassinated by Caligula during a trip to Rome in AD 40. Rome proclaimed the annexation of Mauretania, which was resisted by Ptolemy's former slave Aedemon and by Berber leaders such as Sabalus. Caligula himself was murdered before Rome's response could be made, but his successor Claudius sent legions under Gn. Hosidius Geta and G. Suetonius Paulinus to complete the conquest. By 44, most resistance had been ended and the former kingdom was divided into two Roman provinces, one governed from Tingis (present-day Tangiers) and another governed from Caesarea. Mauretania Caesariensis extended along what is now the Algerian coast and included most of the hinterland as far as the Atlas Mountains.

Roman colonies of veteran soldiers were established in the new provinces to maintain order. Caesarea itself was made a colony, with its residents gaining Roman citizenship. It prospered as a provincial capital during the 1st and 2nd centuries, reaching a population of over 20,000[14] and possibly as many as 30,000.[16] It was defended by auxiliary units and was the harbor of Rome's Mauretanian Fleet,[12] which was established as a permanent force after Berber raids in the early 170s. The city featured a hippodrome, amphitheater, numerous temples, and civic buildings like a basilica.[17] It was surrounded by suburban villas whose agricultural mosaics are now celebrated.[14] It had its own school of philosophy, academy, and library. It received a new forum and further patronage from the African emperor Septimius Severus and his dynasty, possibly reaching as many as 100,000 inhabitants.[18] Its native son Macrinus and his son Diadumenian became the first Berber and lower-class emperors, reigning in 217 and 218. (Their predecessor's wastefulness and wars required unpopular financial adjustments that led to their overthrow in favor of Elagabalus.) Juba's theater was converted into an amphitheater sometime after the year 300.[12]

The city was sacked by a Berber revolt in 371 and 372. It largely recovered, but was ravaged again by the Vandals after they were invited into Roman North Africa by Count Boniface in 429. Parts of the town received new fortifications. After the Vandal Kingdom conquered Carthage in 439, they also acquired a large part of Rome's Mediterranean fleet which they used to carry out raids all over the sea. Caesarea's port was sometimes used as a base for these raiders, and the city prospered from their plunder. Its schools produced the famous grammarian Priscian, who emigrated to the Byzantine east.

El Rahman Mosque in Cherchell, built as a Christian church during the French colonial years, adapting a Roman pagan temple in the forum of Caesarea, later used for Christian worship

In 533, the Vandal Kingdom was conquered by Byzantine forces under Justinian's general Belisarius. Caesarea was among the areas to return to imperial rule. It was the seat of Mauretania's duke (Latin: dux),[19] but it went into decline and its city center was given over to ramshackle housing for the poor.[14] The first duke was named John; that he was given an infantry unit rather than cavalry implies that he was meant to hold the port without much concern about controlling its surrounding hinterland.[19]

The town remained under Byzantine control until its Muslim conquest in the late 7th century. Successive waves of Umayyad attacks into Byzantine North African territory over 15 years wore down the smaller and less motivated imperial forces, until finally Umayyad troops laid siege to the city of Caesarea and, although the defenders were resupplied by Byzantine fleets, finally overwhelmed it. Much of the Byzantine nobility and officials fled to other parts of the Empire, while most of the remaining Roman and semi-Roman Berber population accepted Islamic rule which granted them protected status.

Some remained Christians.[20] For two generations what remained of the Roman population and Romanized Berbers launched several revolts often in conjunction with reinforcements from the Empire. As a result, by the ninth century down much of the city's defences were damaged beyond repair, and resulting in its political loss of importance, leaving the former city little more than a small village.

For the following few centuries, the city remained a power center of Arabs and Berbers with a small but significant population of Christians who were fully assimilated by the beginning of the Early Modern period. Similarly, by the 10th century the city's name had transformed in the local dialect from a Latin to a Berber and ultimately into the Arabised form Sharshal (in French orthography, Cherchell).

The Norman Kingdom of Africa raided Berreshk, near Cherchell, in 1144.[21]

Eventually, Ottoman Turks managed to successfully reconquer the city from Spanish occupation in the 16th century, using the city primarily as a fortified port. In 1520, Hayreddin Barbarossa captured the town and annexed the Algerian Pashalic. His elder brother Oruç Reis built a fort over the town. Under Turkish occupation, the city's importance as a port and fort led to it being inhabited by Moslems of many nationalities, some engaging in privateering and piracy on the Mediterranean.

In reply, European navies and especially the French Navy and the Knights Hospitaller (self-proclaimed descendants of the Crusaders) laid siege to the city and occasionally captured it for limited periods of time. For a century in the 1600s and for a brief period in the 1700s the city either was under Spanish or Hospitallar control. During this period a number of palaces were built, but the overwhelming edifice of Hayreddin Barbarossa's citadel, was considered too militarily valuable to destroy and uncover the previous ancient buildings of old Caesarea.

After the end of the Napoleonic Wars and Revolutions of the early 19th century, the French under both British, American, and other European powers were encouraged to attack and destroy the Barbary Pirates. From 1836 to 1840 various allied navies, but mostly French hunted down the Barbary pirates and conquered the Barbary ports while threatening the Ottoman Empire with war if it intervened. In 1840, the French after a significant siege captured and occupied the town. The French lynched the Barbary Pirates including the local pasha for Crimes against the laws of nations.{fact}

Coat of arms of French Cherchell

In turn, many ancient statues and buildings were either restored and left in Cherchell, or taken to museums in Algiers, Algeria or Paris, France for further study. However, not all building projects were successful in uncovering and restoring the ancient town. The Roman amphitheatre was considered mostly unsalvageable and unnecessary to rebuilt. Its dress stones were used to the build a new French fort and barracks. Materials from the Hippodrome were used to build a new church. The steps of the Hippodrome were partly destroyed by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie in a search for the tomb of Saint Marciana.

French occupation also brought new European settlement, to join the city's long-established communities of semi-Arabized Christians of local origin and old European merchant families, in addition to Berbers and Arab Muslims. Under French rule, European and Christians became a majority of the population again until World War II.

In the immediate years before World War II, losses to the French national population from World War I, and a declining birthrate in general among Europeans kept further colonial settlement to a trickle. Arab and Berber populations started seeing an increase in growth. French-Algerian colonial officials and landowners encouraged larger numbers of surrounding Berber tribesmen to move into the surrounding region to work the farms and groves cheaply. In turn, more and more Berbers and Arabs moved into the city seeking employment. By 1930 the combined Berbo-Arab Algerian population represented nearly 40% of the city's population.

The changing demographics within the city were disguised by the large numbers of French military personnel based there and the numbers of European tourists visiting what had become known as the Algerian Riviera. Additionally, during World War II, Cherchell, with its libraries, cafes, restaurants, and hotels served as a base for the United States Army and Allied War effort, hosting a summit conference between the US and UK in October 1942.

The end of the war with its departure of Allied forces and a reduction of French naval personnel due to rebasing saw an actual decline in Europeans living in the city. Additionally, the general austerity of the post-war years dried up the tourism industry and caused financial stagnation and losses to the local Franco-Algerian community. In 1952, a census recorded that the Frenco-Algerian population had declined to 50% of the population.

For the remaining 1950's Cherchell was only slightly caught up by the Algerian War of Independence. With its large proportion of Europeans, French control and influence was strong enough to discourage all but the most daring attacks by anti-French insurgents. By 1966, after independence from the French, Cherchell had lost nearly half of its population and all of its Franco-Algerian population.

Cherchell has continued to grow post-independence, recovering to peak colonial-era population by the 1980s. Cherchell currently has industries in marble, plaster quarries and iron mines. The town trades in oils, tobacco and earthenware. Additionally, the ancient cistern first developed by Juba and Cleopatra Selene II was restored and expanded under recent French rule and still supplies water to the town.

Although the Algerian Riviera ended with the war, Cherchell is still a popular tourist place in Algeria. Cherchell has various splendid temples and monuments from the Punic, Numidian and Roman periods, and the works of art found there, including statues of Neptune and Venus, are now in the Museum of Antiquities in Algiers. The former Roman port is no longer in commercial use and has been partly filled by alluvial deposits and has been affected by earthquakes. The former local mosque of the Hundred Columns contains 89 columns of diorite. This remarkable building now serves as a hospital. The local museum displays some of the finest ancient Greek and Roman antiquities found in Africa. Cherchell is the birthplace of writer and movie director Assia Djebar.

• S. Pétridès (1908). "Caesarea Mauretaniae". Catholic Encyclopedia.
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cherchel" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 82–83.
• Callegarin, Laurent (2011), "Coinages with Punic and Neo-Punic Legends of Western Mauretania", Money, Trade, and Trade Routes in Pre-Islamic North Africa, British Museum Research Publication, No. 176, London: British Museum, pp. 42–48.
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• Roller, Duane W. (2003), The World of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene, New York: Routledge, ISBN 9781134402960.
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