"Mediteraneo" Tour Αλγέρι DAAG - Κάλιαρι (Σαρδινίας) LIEE

LEG 9

H Λαϊκή Δημοκρατία της Αλγερίας (Αραβικά: الجمهورية الجزائرية الديمقراطية الشعبية) ή Αλγερία (Αραβικά: الجزائر), είναι μία χώρα στη βόρεια Αφρική. Έχει έκταση 2.381.740 km² πληθυσμό 32.531.853 (Ιούλιος 2005). Στα βόρεια βρέχεται από τη Μεσόγειο, ανατολικά συνορεύει με την Τυνησία και τη Λιβύη, νότια με τη Νιγηρία, το Μαλί και τη Μαυριτανία, δυτικά με το Μαρόκο. Πρωτεύουσα είναι το Αλγέρι.

A Phoenician commercial outpost called Ikosim, turned into a Roman small town called Icosium, existed on what is now the marine quarter of the city. The rue de la Marine follows the lines of a Roman street. Roman cemeteries existed near Bab-el-Oued and Bab Azoun. The city was given Latin rights by Vespasian. The bishops of Icosium are mentioned as late as the 5th century.

The present city was founded in 944 by Buluggin ibn Ziri, the founder of the Zirid-Senhaja dynasty, which was overthrown by Roger II of Sicily in 1148. The Zirids had before that date lost Algiers, which in 1159 was occupied by the Almohades, and in the 13th century came under the dominion of the Abd-el-Wadid sultans of Tlemcen.

Nominally part of the sultanate of Tlemcen, Algiers had a large measure of independence under amirs of its own, Oran being the chief seaport of the Abd-el-Wahid. The islet in front of the harbour, subsequently known as the Penon, had been occupied by the Spaniards as early as 1302. Thereafter a considerable trade grew up between Algiers and Spain.

Algiers, however, continued to be of comparatively little importance until after the expulsion from Spain of the Moors, many of whom sought an asylum in the city. In 1510, following their occupation of Oran and other towns on the coast of Africa, the Spaniards fortified the Penon. In 1516 the amir of Algiers, Selim b. Teumi, invited the brothers Arouj and Khair-ad-Din (Barbarossa) to expel the Spaniards. Arouj came to Algiers, caused Selim to be assassinated, and seized the town. Khair-ad-Din, succeeding Arouj, drove the Spaniards from the Penon (1550) and was the founder of the pashalik, afterwards deylik, of Algeria.

Algiers from this time became the chief seat of the Barbary pirates. In October 1541 the emperor Charles V sought to capture the city, but a storm destroyed a great number of his ships, and his army of some 30,000, chiefly Spaniards, was defeated by the Algerians under their pasha, Hassan. From the 17th century, Algiers, free of Ottoman control and sited on the periphery of both the Ottoman and European economic spheres, and depending for its existence on a Mediterranean that was increasingly controlled by European shipping, backed by European navies, turned to piracy and ransoming. Repeated attempts were made by various nations to subdue the pirates that disturbed shipping in the western Mediterranean and engaged in slave raids as far north as Cornwall. The United States fought two wars (the First and Second Barbary Wars) over Algiers' attacks on shipping.

In 1816 the city was bombarded by a British squadron under Lord Exmouth (a descendant of Thomas Pellew, taken in an Algierian slave raid in 1715), assisted by Dutch men-of-war, and the corsair fleet burned. On the 4th of July in 1830, on the pretext of an affront to their consul - whom the dey had hit with a fly-whisk when he said the French government was not prepared to pay its large outstanding debts to two Algerian Jewish merchants - a French army under General de Bourmont attacked the city, which capitulated on the following day.

The history of Algiers from 1830 to 1962 is bound to the larger history of Algeria and its relationship to France.

In 1962, after a bloody independence struggle in which hundreds of thousands of Algerians died (a million according to official Algerian history) at the hands of the French army and the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale, Algeria finally gained its independence, with Algiers as its capital. Since then, despite losing its entire European or Pied-noir population, the city has expanded massively - it now has 3 million inhabitants, or 10% of Algeria's population - and its suburbs now cover most of the surrounding Metidja plain. Algiers is hosting the 2007 All-Africa Games for the 2nd time, they hosted the event in 1978.

Càgliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. It has about 170,000 inhabitants, or about 300,000 including the suburbs (metropolitan area) (Elmas, Pirri, Selargius, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu Sant'Elena).From the 1870s, with the unification of Italy, the city experienced a century of rapid growth. Many outstanding buildings were erected by the end of the 18th century during the office of Mayor Ottone Bacaredda. Many of these buildings combined influences from Art Nouveau together with the traditional Sardinian taste for flower decoration: an example is the white marble City Hall near the port. Ottone Bacaredda is also famous for the violent repression of one of the earlier worker strikes in the beginning of the 20th century.

During the Second World War, Cagliari was heavily bombed by the Allies in February 1943. In order to escape from the bombardments and the misery of the destroyed town, many people left Cagliari and moved to the country or rural villages, often living with friends and relatives in overcrowded houses. This flee from the town is knwon as "sfollamento" (deserting). After the Italian truce with the Allies in September 1943, the German Army took control of Cagliari and the island, but soon retreated peacefully in order to reinforce their positions in mainland Italy. The American Army then took control of Cagliari. Cagliari was strategically important during the war because of its location in the Mediterranean Sea. Many airports were near Cagliari (Elmas, Monserrato, Decimomannu, currently a NATO airbase) from which airplanes could fly to Northern Africa or mainland Italy and Sicily.

After the war, the population of Cagliari boosted and many apartment blocks were erected in new residential districts, often created with poor planning as for recreational areas.Cagliari is an ideal location for sailing,hiking and outdoor sports. It has a mild climate, often refreshed by northern-west winds. It is close to other beautiful sea-side locations, such as Chia or Villasimius, still relatively unspoilt by tourism and is also close to mountain parks, such as Monte Arcosu or Maidopis, with large forests and wildlife (Sardinian deers, wild boars, etc.).

Cagliari has some peculiar gastronomic traditions. Many dishes are based on the wide variety of fish and sea food available. Although it is possible to trace influences from Spanish gastronomy, Cagliaritanian food has a distintctive and unique character. Very good wines are also part of Cagliaritanians' dinners: excellent wines are in fact produced in the nearby vineyards of the Campidano plain.