Biskra
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Biskra
بسكرة | |
---|---|
City | |
UTC+1 (CET) | |
Postal code | 07000 |
Area code | 033 |
Climate | BWh |
Major Airport | Biskra Airport |
Website | [1] |
Biskra (
In 1844, Biskra became a French garrison,[1] which saw fighting during rebellions in 1849 and 1871.[2]
Currently the city of Biskra has 28 neighborhoods, including the three principal neighborhoods of Korra, City 60 Logements, and Equipment Zones. It is in the southern part of the Algerian rail system, and has become a popular winter resort.
Etymology
The city has been known by many names, including Biskra, Sokkra, Vescra, Vecera, Vescera, Adbesran. Historians do not agree on the origins of the current name. Some[who?] say its name comes from "Vescera", which means "station" or "place" of commercial exchange, due to its location connecting north and south. The Roman leader Betolimih Benyouba named it "the river of destiny" because of the Sidi Zarzour (its current name) that crosses the city.[citation needed]
Some researchers[who?] say that its name was derived from the ancient Roman name "Adebesran" because of the geothermal source that is located near the city, known as Salhine Hammam. Other sources[who?] say that the name comes from the word "Sokkra" because of the quality of the sweet dates in the city's oases. Still others[who?] claim that the current name was given to the city by the Carthaginians.
In honor of the city, the name was given to an oasis, Biskra Palms, near Palm Springs, California.[3]
History
Gaetuli
The
The Gaetuli are probably the origin of
While traversing the desert, the Gaetuli arrived with the
In Algeria, they settled at the edge of the
Roman colonization
The city of Biskra experienced many violent wars during the Roman colonization, including the resistance war led by the Berber leader Tacfarinas, followed by his successor, the militant Jugurtha "Youghorta". With the help of the inhabitants of the city, who provided human and material support, Jugurtha destroyed the Roman army at the end of the so-called Numidia region.
The Vandals in the 4th century
The Vandals "Oundals" invaded the city of Biskra and occupied all its land, but the resistance and continuous fighting of its inhabitants forced the Vandals to integrate with them. After a few decades, the Romans took over the city, where they built obstacles to protect themselves from the vengeance of the population.
The arrival of the Arab conqueror Uqba ibn Nafi al-Fihri in the 7th century
They remained with such vigilance until the arrival of the Arab conqueror
In the early 10th century, Biskra and the entire Ziban area were conquered by the kings of Beni Hammad.
The Hillal Bannis in the 12th century
Followed by the Kabyla of Elathbend banished Hilal (Hilalian Arabs) who removed and confiscated the property of the inhabitants. They asked for the help of the Almohads of the kingdom of Marrakech in the 12th century.
The Hafsids in the 14th century
In the 14th century, the Hafsid arrived in Tunisia and Algeria. Biskra became an important hub for the Hafsid of Tunisia where it remained under lure monarchy and direction for a long time then under the authority of Mérinides of Fez and banned Abd-Elouadi and the Znatiyin of Tlemcen.
The conquest of the city by the Turks in 1541
In 1541, the Turks began their conquest of the city under the direction of Hocine Agha who defended the city of Algiers at the time and brought out the strength of Charles Compte of the latter.
French colonization from 1844
After the French conquest of Biskra in 1844, the site was fortified to secure the area against uprisings. El-hadj Mohammed Esaghire Elokbi, as the successor to El-Emir Abdelkader, waged continued war against the French, attacking the French forces under Lamoriciere on 23 December 1847. Elokbi also opposed the Ben Ghana clan as well as Ahmed Bey's claim as ruler of Constantine. Resistance continued in the Ziban and Aurès Mountains.
In Biskra the local chief Bou Zian rallied the people against the palm tax, seizing the moated fortification of Zaatcha 20 km from Biskra. The French marched on Zaatcha, laying siege for months. It finally fell after 53 days of attacks by a French force of 7,000 troops. Bou Zian was killed. The French counted the loss of 2130. French control nonetheless remained tenuous when attacks were mounted again in 1879 at El-kamri.
Some 100 years after the battle of Zaatcha, in 1954 Biskra was again the scene of anti-French assaults during the
In culture
At the end of the 19th century Biskra, a popular spa town and gateway to the Sahara, became a center for artists and photographers such as Émile Frechon, Alexandre Bougault and Rudolf Lehnert. From 1872 to 1920 the French Count Albert Landon de Longueville hosted in his villa-cum-chateau at Biskra (today Villa Bénévent), nobility, artists and writers, including Béla Bartok, Oscar Wilde, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, André Gide, Nasreddine Dinet, Eugène Fromentin, Karl Marx, Anatole France, Francis James and Henri Matisse.
Biskra is the setting of key sections of
The French artist Henri Matisse has a work titled Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra) an oil painting finished in 1907.
The Hungarian composer Béla Bartók collected traditional music in Biskra in 1913.[citation needed]
The Polish composer Karol Szymanowski, who traveled to North Africa, seemed to have been quite impressed by Biskra. This trip probably aroused genuine interest in the North African/ Arabic culture. He composed many pieces influenced by his experience there. He sent a postcard from Biskra on 11 April 1914.[citation needed]
Diana Mayo, the protagonist of
Winston Churchill's cousin, sculptor and author Clare Sheridan held a salon in Biskra in the 1920s and 1930s.[4]
Geography
Biskra is located in the north-east of
Apart from the mountains that surround it, the topography of Biskra is generally very flat. Part of the city is surrounded by the Sfa Pass and the
As in the rest of the country, Biskra does not observe summer time and stays in the same time zone all year round. Whether winter or summer, the time is always the same in Biskra. The sunrise is around 7:41 am to 21 December and 5:24 am on 21 June. The sunset is around 5:30 pm on 21 December and at 7:54 pm on 21 June.
Cityscape
Neighborhoods
The city of Biskra has gone through three phases before getting to where it is today. Started by the pre-colonial phase which testifies, that the city was pending this period under Roman rule over country of the Berbers, and having taken the role of the capital of southern Numidia, and the
A very prosperous city, built by the Muslims in the Middle Ages. During the Turkish period the city was hit by epidemics, binding occupiers of the fort to leave the city to settle, in a group scattered the interior of the palm grove, south of the city, around two elements of the form local production, the built environment that are the mosque and seguias, besides the use local building materials.
Secondly, the city was marked by the colonial phase characterized by the building of fort Saint Germain on the northern part, and the construction of a city (the colonial checkerboard) by an urban model, different from the previous one, and having undergone several extension, particularly the 1st and 2nd and the Dervau Plan, followed during the 50s, by popular extensions to the South at the expense of the palm grove and without dimensional and formal logic.
In the end the post colonial phase characterized by the proliferation of self-built no plan to urban and architectural quality at least and without model, where typological reference, which has only to be curbed, after the instruction of the laws intervention and control of the state, over the urban space, by launching large Housing development operations in the framework of ZUNH, in the form of housing communal collective or subdivision which, despite this, has not been able to resolve the demand for housing, bringing the state to promulgation, other laws havingobjective, improving urban quality, openness and diversification stakeholders.
Today, the city of Biskra is made up of 28 neighborhoods including 3 main ones which are, Korra, City 60 Logts ENICAB and Equipment Zones.
Climate
Biskra has a
The climate is very dry and mostly very clear. Rainfall is limited to only 128.8 mm per year. Precipitation is quite rare despite some showers usually during the coldest months, mainly January and February, where it rains several times in the season, which brings the majority of humidity to Biskra in a year. The highest precipitation record recorded in Biskra in a year is (600.5 mm) in 1910 while the driest year is only (27.7 mm) recorded in 1945. The extreme heat that prevails during the summer can cause violent storms at the end of it and usually occur in September, when the air humidity becomes significantly higher with an average of 41% moisture per year. The month with the highest air rate in Biskra is December with 59% humidity, July is the least heavy month with only 27% on average per year. Aside from rainfall or humidity, sandstorms can occur several times a month and even become Haboob, which can make visibility almost zero. Biskra has a very good duration of sunshine in the year with an average of 3,292 hours of sunshine a year. The wettest month is November with (20.1 mm), while July is the driest month with (1.7 mm).
The hot, dry and sunny climate of the city sometimes attracts some inhabitants of the northern regions as in the city of
On average, Biskra knows no day in the year with a temperature below zero. Moving away from the urban area, the risk of frost may be more frequent and night temperatures are lower. Biskra very rarely experiences freezing days and only occurs occasionally during periods of mild cold weather. what can happen to Biskra and its surroundings. The record for the largest number of frost days recorded at Biskra in a winter is 1980–1981 with 73 days, while the record for the number of consecutive years experiencing freeze-up in Biskra is 1886 years. 1888. The lowest recorded temperature in Biskra was 23 °F (−5 °C) on 27 December 1914, while the lowest daily maximum temperature was 44.6 °F (7.0 °C) on 2 February 1934.
Climate data for Biskra (Biskra Airport) (1991–2020, extremes 1878–present) | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °C (°F) | 26.1 (79.0) |
31.0 (87.8) |
34.8 (94.6) |
42.0 (107.6) |
45.3 (113.5) |
48.0 (118.4) |
51.0 (123.8) |
49.0 (120.2) |
46.0 (114.8) |
40.5 (104.9) |
35.3 (95.5) |
27.5 (81.5) |
51.0 (123.8) |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 17.3 (63.1) |
19.2 (66.6) |
23.2 (73.8) |
27.1 (80.8) |
32.5 (90.5) |
37.7 (99.9) |
41.1 (106.0) |
40.3 (104.5) |
34.7 (94.5) |
29.2 (84.6) |
22.2 (72.0) |
18.0 (64.4) |
28.5 (83.4) |
Daily mean °C (°F) | 12.1 (53.8) |
13.6 (56.5) |
17.3 (63.1) |
21.1 (70.0) |
26.2 (79.2) |
31.2 (88.2) |
34.5 (94.1) |
34.0 (93.2) |
29.1 (84.4) |
23.7 (74.7) |
17.1 (62.8) |
13.0 (55.4) |
22.7 (72.9) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 6.9 (44.4) |
8.0 (46.4) |
11.4 (52.5) |
15.1 (59.2) |
19.9 (67.8) |
24.7 (76.5) |
28.0 (82.4) |
27.7 (81.9) |
23.4 (74.1) |
18.1 (64.6) |
12.0 (53.6) |
8.0 (46.4) |
16.9 (62.4) |
Record low °C (°F) | −3.0 (26.6) |
−0.5 (31.1) |
1.3 (34.3) |
3.0 (37.4) |
5.0 (41.0) |
12.0 (53.6) |
16.1 (61.0) |
15.0 (59.0) |
11.0 (51.8) |
4.2 (39.6) |
1.0 (33.8) |
−5.0 (23.0) |
−5.0 (23.0) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 16.0 (0.63) |
8.4 (0.33) |
14.7 (0.58) |
16.6 (0.65) |
11.1 (0.44) |
3.4 (0.13) |
0.7 (0.03) |
2.7 (0.11) |
16.2 (0.64) |
15.3 (0.60) |
14.8 (0.58) |
9.2 (0.36) |
129.1 (5.08) |
Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 2.2 | 1.6 | 2.1 | 2.0 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 2.9 | 2.0 | 1.6 | 2.0 | 19.5 |
Average relative humidity (%)
|
57 | 50 | 44 | 39 | 34 | 31 | 27 | 31 | 41 | 48 | 55 | 59 | 43 |
Mean monthly sunshine hours | 223.2 | 223.2 | 260.4 | 282.0 | 319.3 | 333.0 | 362.7 | 328.6 | 270.0 | 266.6 | 213.0 | 210.8 | 3,292.8 |
Mean daily sunshine hours | 7.2 | 7.9 | 8.4 | 9.4 | 10.3 | 11.1 | 11.7 | 10.6 | 9.0 | 8.6 | 7.1 | 6.8 | 9.0 |
Source 1: NOAA[5] | |||||||||||||
Source 2: Arab Meteorology Book (humidity and sun),[6] Meteo Climat (record highs and lows)[7] |
Flora and Fauna
The fauna of Biskra is characterized by a great diversity of insects such as
Demographics
Population
Year | Population[8] |
---|---|
1901 | 7,500 |
1911 | 20,000 |
1926 | 22,000 |
1931 | 18,900 |
1936 | 21,300 |
1948 | 36,400 |
1954 | 52,500 |
1966 | 59,300 |
1977 | 77,000 (town) 90,500 (municipality) |
1987 | 128,300 |
1998 | 177,600 |
2010 | 300,000 |
References
- ^ "Market, Biskra, Algeria". World Digital Library. 1899. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
- OCLC 1091880941.
- ^ Gunther, Jane Davies (1984). Riverside County, California, Place Names; Their Origins and Their Stories. Riverside, California. pp. 53–54.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ "A Modest Proposal". Time. 24 March 1941. Archived from the original on 15 June 2008. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
... In Biskra he frequented the Algerian salon of Winston Churchill's cousin, sculptress Clare Sheridan (Arab Interlude). ...
- ^ "Biskra Climate Normals for 1991-2020". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Archived from the original on 9 October 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
- ^ "Appendix I: Meteorological Data" (PDF). Springer. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
- ^ "Station Biskra" (in French). Meteo Climat. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
- ^ "ALGERIA: urban population". www.populstat.info. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016.
External links
Media related to Biskra at Wikimedia Commons
- (in French) Biskra City