Bejaia, Algeria

Bejaïa (/be'ʒaja/; V'gayet in the kabyle language) is a Mediterranean port on the Gulf of Béjaïa in Béjaïa Province, northern Algeria. Its former name, until 1962 was Bougie /bu'ʒi/. The population of the city in 1998 was 147,076, but 905,000 according to the City of Bejaia itself.[1] The northern terminus of the Hassi Messaoud oil pipeline from the Sahara, Béjaïa is the principal oil port of the Western Mediterranean. Exports, aside from crude petroleum, include iron, phosphates, wines, dried figs, and plums. The city also has textile and cork industries. A minor port in Carthaginian and Roman times, Béjaïa was the Roman Saldae. It became the capital of the Vandals in the 5th century. It later disappeared but was refounded by the Berbers in the 11th century and became an important port and cultural center. After Spanish occupation (1510–55), the city was taken by the Ottoman Turks. Until it was captured by the French in 1833, Bejaïa was a stronghold of the Barbary pirates (see Barbary States). City landmarks include a 16th-century mosque and a casbah (fortress) built by the Spanish in 1545.