Algiers (Arabic: الجزائر al-Jazā’ir, Algerian Arabic: Dzayer [dzæˈjer]; from Kabyle: Dzayer [ˈdzæjər] or Dzayer tamaneγt; French: Alger, pronounced: [alʒer]) is the capital and largest city of Algeria, and the second largest city in the Maghreb (after Casablanca). According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. A recent UN estimate of the urban agglomeration (metrop...
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Algiers (Arabic: الجزائر al-Jazā’ir, Algerian Arabic: Dzayer [dzæˈjer]; from Kabyle: Dzayer [ˈdzæjər] or Dzayer tamaneγt; French: Alger, pronounced: [alʒer]) is the capital and largest city of Algeria, and the second largest city in the Maghreb (after Casablanca). According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. A recent UN estimate of the urban agglomeration (metropolitan area) puts the population at 3,354,000 as of 2007.
Nicknamed El-Bahdja (البهجة) or alternatively Alger la Blanche ("Algiers the White") for the glistening white of its buildings as seen rising up from the sea, Algiers is situated on the west side of a bay of the Mediterranean Sea. The city name is derived from the Arabic word al-jazā’ir, which translates as the islands, referring to the four islands which lay off the city's coast until becoming part of the mainland in 1525. Al-jazā’ir is itself a truncated form of the city's older name...
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