Skikda
Skikda
سكيكدة | |
|---|---|
 Location of Skikda in theSkikda Province | |
  Skikda Location within Algeria | |
| Coordinates:36°52′N6°54′E/ 36.867°N 6.900°E | |
| Country |  Algeria |
| Province | Skikda |
| District | Skikda District |
| Founded | 1200 BC |
| Area | |
| • Total | 52 km2(20 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 18 m (59 ft) |
| Population (2008 census) | |
| • Total | 182,903 |
| • Density | 3,500/km2(9,100/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+1(CET) |
| Postal code | 21000 |
| Climate | Csa |
Skikda(Arabic:سكيكدة;formerlyPhilippeville[1]from 1838 to 1962 andRusicade[1]in ancient times) is a city in northeasternAlgeriaand a port on theMediterranean.It is the capital ofSkikda ProvinceandSkikda District.
History
[edit]
ThePhoeniciansandCarthaginiansestablished a trading post and fort namedRŠKD(𐤓𐤔𐤊𐤃,"JugCape") after Skikda's nearby cape.[2]Falling underRomanhegemony after thePunic Wars,the name wasLatinizedasRusicade[3][4]orRusiccade.[5]Rusicade contained the largestRoman theatrein Algeria, dating to the reign ofHadrian.
Inlate antiquity,the port was destroyed during theVandals' invasion of 530. TheByzantinesreconquered the regionin 533 and 534, but left large areas under Berber control. The townwas overrunby theUmayyad Caliphateat the end of the 7th century.
Present-day Skikda was founded bySylvain Charles Valéein 1838 under the namePhilippeville,[1]honoringthe French kingat the time. TheFrenchwere in the process ofanne xing Algeriaand developed Philippeville as a port forConstantine,[1]Algeria's third-largest city. The two cities wereconnected by rail.The harbour works, with every vessel in port, was destroyed by a storm in 1878; a larger harbour was then built.[1]On 10 October 1883, there was an earthquake in Philippeville.[6]
Towards the end ofWorld War II,aUNRRArefugee camp nameCampJeanne d'Arcwas established near the city. On 25 January 1945, 200 Jews holding citizenship from countries in North andSouth Americawere sent from theBergen-Belsen concentration campto Switzerland as part of a prisoner exchange group. They were later sent to the UNRRA camp in Skikda.[7]
Battle of Philippeville
[edit]An attack by the FLN in 1955 during the war of Independence left around 123 civilians dead, mainly French and those suspected of collaboration.[8]Angered over the massacre of civilians, including women, seniors, and babies, the French escalated their offensive against the FLN. Reprisals by French forces may have killed between 1,200 (according to French sources,) and 12,000 civilians (according to the FLN.)
1989 shipping disaster
[edit]The city has a commercial harbour with a gas and oil terminal. On 15 February 1989 theDutchtanker theMVMaassluiswas anchored just outside the port, waiting to dock the next day at the terminal, whenextreme weatherbroke out. The ship's anchors did not hold and the ship smashed on the pier-head of the port. The disaster killed 27 of the 29 people on board.[9]
Modern Skikda
[edit]The city has a population of 250,000.Natural gas,oil refining,andpetrochemicalindustries were developed in the 1970s and pipelines have been built for their transportation. The city hall (a neo-moorish style palace) and the railroad station were designed byLe Corbusier.
The official city flag colours are blue and white, the colours of the Mediterranean. The current postal code is 21000. Skikda has the third largest commercial port in Algeria afterAlgiersandOran.It has also a petrochemical terminal port and a smaller fishing port inStora,and there are many beaches along the naturalMediterraneancoastline. There is also a closed airport near the petrochemical complex.
Geography
[edit]
Skikda lies on the coast of theGulf of Stora,part of theMediterranean Sea.The landscape is hilly and forested, with high ridges on both the western and eastern sides of the city.
Climate
[edit]Skikda has aMediterranean climate(Köppen climate classificationCsa), with cool, wet winters and very warm, dry summers.
| Climate data for Skikda (1961–1990, extremes 1926–1992) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 26.4 (79.5) |
30.6 (87.1) |
32.0 (89.6) |
34.6 (94.3) |
38.8 (101.8) |
41.0 (105.8) |
44.4 (111.9) |
46.7 (116.1) |
44.0 (111.2) |
38.0 (100.4) |
33.0 (91.4) |
28.0 (82.4) |
46.7 (116.1) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 16.1 (61.0) |
16.6 (61.9) |
17.5 (63.5) |
19.5 (67.1) |
22.2 (72.0) |
25.1 (77.2) |
28.4 (83.1) |
28.9 (84.0) |
27.3 (81.1) |
24.3 (75.7) |
20.5 (68.9) |
17.1 (62.8) |
22.0 (71.6) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 12.0 (53.6) |
12.3 (54.1) |
13.2 (55.8) |
15.1 (59.2) |
17.9 (64.2) |
21.0 (69.8) |
23.9 (75.0) |
24.6 (76.3) |
22.9 (73.2) |
19.8 (67.6) |
16.1 (61.0) |
13.0 (55.4) |
17.6 (63.7) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 8.0 (46.4) |
7.9 (46.2) |
8.8 (47.8) |
10.7 (51.3) |
13.5 (56.3) |
16.7 (62.1) |
19.4 (66.9) |
20.2 (68.4) |
18.5 (65.3) |
15.3 (59.5) |
11.6 (52.9) |
8.9 (48.0) |
13.3 (55.9) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 0.0 (32.0) |
−0.5 (31.1) |
−0.6 (30.9) |
3.0 (37.4) |
5.0 (41.0) |
8.0 (46.4) |
10.2 (50.4) |
12.3 (54.1) |
11.6 (52.9) |
2.0 (35.6) |
0.0 (32.0) |
0.0 (32.0) |
−0.6 (30.9) |
| Averageprecipitationmm (inches) | 115.3 (4.54) |
94.0 (3.70) |
75.6 (2.98) |
60.8 (2.39) |
29.9 (1.18) |
13.1 (0.52) |
2.9 (0.11) |
9.7 (0.38) |
30.1 (1.19) |
75.0 (2.95) |
99.2 (3.91) |
123.0 (4.84) |
728.8 (28.69) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 0.1 mm) | 15 | 11 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 12 | 13 | 16 | 112 |
| Averagerelative humidity(%) | 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 | 76 | 75 | 73 | 75 | 75 | 74 | 75 | 75 | 75 |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 139.5 | 155.4 | 207.7 | 222.0 | 279.0 | 306.0 | 356.5 | 322.4 | 258.0 | 201.5 | 156.0 | 133.3 | 2,737.3 |
| Mean dailysunshine hours | 4.5 | 5.5 | 6.7 | 7.4 | 9.0 | 10.2 | 11.5 | 10.4 | 8.6 | 6.5 | 5.2 | 4.3 | 7.5 |
| Source 1: NOAA[10] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2:Deutscher Wetterdienst(extremes 1926–1992, sun 1952–1990, humidity 1973–1992, and avg. precipitation days 1952–1970)[11] | |||||||||||||
Economy
[edit]Historically, Skikda is known for its seaport. It was described, in 1911, byBaedekeras having "the youngest Algerianseaport."[12]
On 19 January 2004, a fire and explosion at the Skikda LNG facility killed 29 people and caused $940,000,000 worth of damage. The accident incapacitated three LNG trains and impacted approximately 2% of the world's liquefaction capacity. The explosion was preceded by the ingestion of a sizable leak of cold hydrocarbon into the boiler of the westernmost LNG line. This caused the boiler to explode. According to the 2014 Marsh report into the world's largest industrial disaster, the Skikda explosion is ranked No. 3 in the hydrocarbon industry.
Transportation
[edit]
The main road from Skikda is the N3 toEl Arrouch,Constantine,Batna,BiskraandTouggourt.Smaller local roads lead to the towns ofStora(to the northwest along the coast),Beni Bechir(to the south),BissyandAzzaba(to the southeast), andEl MersaandChetaibi(to the east).
Skikda is the terminus of theAlgiers-Skikda line– one of theSNTFmainline railroads, although most passenger and cargo services branch off in nearbyRamdane Djamel(towards theRamdane Djamel-AnnabaorRamdane Djamel-Jijel linesbefore reaching Skikda). The city is served bySkikda Airport,although this airport is currently unused.
Notable people
[edit]- Fadéla M'rabet(born 1935), writer and feminist
- Rose Celli(1895–1982), novelist, playwright, translator and poet
Photo Gallery
[edit]
References
[edit]
Citations
[edit]- ^abcdeChisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)..Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 390.
- ^Huss (2006).
- ^John Boardman; I. E. S. Edwards; E. Sollberger; N. G. L. Hammond (16 January 1992).The Cambridge Ancient History.Cambridge University Press. p. 496.ISBN978-0-521-22717-9.
- ^Plin.,Nat. Hist.,Book V, §22;Tab. Peut.,3.3;Rav. Cosmogr.,39.12.
- ^Mela,De Situ,Book I, §33;Julius Honorius,Cosmogr., A.44;Vibius Sequester,Geogr.,p. 151.
- ^"Earthquake Shock in Algeria".New York Times.10 October 1883.
- ^sourcePage at Holocaust database
- ^Ben Abro,Assassination! July 14,University of Nebraska Press (2001), p251
- ^Website Nieuwsdossier onSinking of MaassluisArchived3 May 2011 at theWayback Machine,retrieved 3 August 2010
- ^ "Climate Normals for Skikda".National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Retrieved27 March2016.
- ^ "Klimatafel von Skikda (Philippeville) / Algerien"(PDF).Baseline climate means (1961-1990) from stations all over the world(in German). Deutscher Wetterdienst.Retrieved27 March2016.
- ^"Philippeville, Algeria".World Digital Library.1899.Retrieved26 September2013.
Bibliography
[edit]- Huss, Werner(2006), "Rusicade",Brill's New Pauly Encyclopedia of the Ancient World,Leiden: Brill.
External links
[edit]
| Algeria |
|
|---|---|
| Cyprus | |
| Greece | |
| Israel | |
| Italy | |
| Lebanon | |
| Libya | |
| Malta | |
| Morocco | |
| Portugal |
|
| Spain | |
| Syria | |
| Tunisia | |
| Other | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Geographic | |
| Other | |
