Chlef
Encyclopedia
Chlef is the capital of Chlef Province
Chlef Province
Chlef is a province in Algeria, and has about 1 million inhabitants. Its capital is Chlef. Another locality is Ténès, on the Mediterranean Sea.-Administrative divisions:...

, Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

. It is home to the soccer club ASO Chlef
ASO Chlef
Association Sportive Olympique de Chlef is an Algerian football club based in Chlef, founded in 1947. The club colours are red and white. Their venue, Stade Mohamed Boumezrag has a capacity of some 30,000.-History:...

, the Hassiba Ben Bouali university, and the basilica of Saint Reparatus, which is home to the oldest Christian labyrinth in the world.

The province of Chlef is located in the north of Algeria, 200 km west of the capital Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. 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. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...

.

Al-Asnam

The site of the roman citadel, Castellum Tingitanum, was known as Al-Asnam (Arabic for "sculptures") on account of an area of 600 x 300 metres containg many statues.

Orléansville

In 1843 Maréchal Bugeaud founded the city of Orléansville here.
A Christian basilica dating back to the reign of the Emperor Constantine was discovered here, with an elaborate mosaic. This is the oldest church to be found in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

.

The town was located at the confluence of the river Chlef and the Tsighaout. The town developed slowly on account of the climate, one of the hottest in Algeria.

On the night of 8/9 September 1954, the town was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake with over 1,500 fatal casualties affecting people as much as 70 kilometres away.

At that time the town had a population of 44,400 inhabitants. It was the home of the Algerian Division of the Lettrist International
Lettrist International
The Letterist International was a Paris-based collective of radical artists and theorists between 1952 and 1957. It was created by Guy Debord as a schism from Isidore Isou's Letterist group...

 (LI), most of whom died in the earthquake. Mohamed Dahou survived and went on to become involved in the Situationist International. The LI described the town as "the most lettrist
Lettrism
Lettrism is a French avant-garde movement, established in Paris in the mid-1940s by Romanian immigrant Isidore Isou. In a body of work totaling hundreds of volumes, Isou and the Lettrists have applied their theories to all areas of art and culture, most notably in poetry, film, painting and...

 city in the world"

Chlef

In 1962 the city was renamed Al-Asnam, and then Chlef in 1980, derived from the name of the longest river in Algeria.

Amongst the towns of Chlef are: El-Karimia, Chlef, Oued Fodda, Beni-Bou-Atab, Boukadir, Oum-Drou, Ouled Abass, Beni-Rached, Taougrite, Aïn-Mran, Sobha, Tenes, Dhahra and others.

External links

A website about colonial Chlef
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