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Annaba عنابة
City
Overview of Annaba
Seal
Location of Annaba, Algeria within Annaba Province
Annaba Location within Algeria Show map of AlgeriaShow map of AfricaShow all
Coordinates: 36°54′N 7°46′ECoordinates: 36°54′N 7°46′E
Country	Algeria
Province	Annaba Province
District	Annaba District
Government
• Mayor	Lina Linette
Area
• Total	49 km2 (19 sq mi)
Elevation	3 m (10 ft)
Population  (2008)[1]
• Total	257,359
• Density	5,300/km2 (14,000/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
Postal code	23000
Climate	Csa

Annaba (Arabic: عنّابة‎, lit "Place of the Jujubes"; Berber languages: Aânavaen),^[2][3] formerly known as Bona and Bône, is a seaport city in the northeastern corner of Algeria, close to Tunisia. Annaba is close to the small Seybouse River, and it is in the Annaba Province. With a population of about 464.740 (2019),^[1] Annaba is the fourth largest city in Algeria. It is one of the leading industrial centers in Algeria.^[4][5]

Annaba is a coastal city that underwent significant growth during the 20th Century. Annaba has a metropolitan area with a higher population density than the other metropolitan areas of the Algerian coastline, such as Oran and Algiers. Much of eastern and southern Algeria uses the services, equipment, and infrastructure of Annaba. Economically, it is the centre for various economic activities, such as industry, transportation, finance, and tourism.^[6]

Names[edit]

Present-day Annaba grew up on the site of Aphrodisium, the seaport of the Roman city Hippo Regius.^[2] (The modern city has since expanded south over Hippo's ruins as well.) Its former names Bône^[2] and Bona^[7] derived from "Ubbo", a local form of the name Hippo.^[2] Its informal name "Land of the Jujubes" (بلد العناب, Balad al-Unnāb) derives from that abundance of that fruit in the region.

History[edit]

Bona, Algeria, 1899

Ancient city of Hippo Regius, today Annaba

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Ancient[edit]

The area of Annaba has yielded evidence of very early human occupation at Ain el Hanech, near Saïda (circa 200,000 BC), including artifacts that show remarkable toolmaking craftsmanship. According to some sources, prehistoric Algeria was the site of the most advanced development of flake-tool techniques in the Middle Early Stone Age (Middle Paleolithic).

The Phoenicians settled in Annaba during the 14th century BC. Hippo Regius was a center of early Western Christianity, and it was the site of many Christian synods, one of which was a key site for the dissemination of the books of the New Testament. Augustine of Hippo was bishop here from 396 AD until his death in 430 AD.^[8] The city was destroyed in the 5th century by the Vandals.^[9] Vandals ruled the city for roughly a century until 534.^[10] Gelimer, the King of the Vandals and Alans from 530 to 534 AD, faced with the starvation of his followers and their children, and realizing he had no chance of regaining his kingdom of North Africa, surrendered to Flavius Belisarius, a general of the Byzantine Empire under Justinian I, at Bône.^[11] Byzantines then ruled Hippona (Hippo's renamed name after 395) before the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in 699 AD. Later, Abbasids, Aghlabids, and Fatimids ruled Bona before the rise of the Zirids. It was relocated to its present place after flooding and Banu Hilal the ravages that occurred in 1033 during Hammadid rule. It was attacked by a Pisan and Genovese fleet in 1034 and was conquered by Kingdom of Sicily in 1153. The Almohads took it in 1160.

During the 11th century, the Banu Hilal, an Arab tribe living between the Nile and the Red Sea, settled in Tunisia, Tripolitania(western Libya) and Constantinois (eastern Algeria) which was the portion known as Annaba.

After the demise of the Almohads, the rule of the Hafsids began in Annaba in 1250. Hafsid rule was interrupted by brief occupations of the Marinids and Castile (in 1360) and ended with that of the Zayyanids. Rule by the Ottoman Empire began in 1533, and that lasted until French occupation in 1832, excepting rule by the Spanish Empire between 1535 and 1540. The Barbary pirates also lived in Annaba from the 16th through 19th centuries.^[9]