Bejaïa

Bejaïa, formerly Bougie, town, Mediterranean Sea port, northeastern Algeria. The town lies at the mouth of the Wadi Soummam. Sheltered by Mount Gouraya (2,165 feet [660 metres]) and Cape Carbon, it receives an annual average rainfall of 40 inches (1,000 mm) and is surrounded by a fertile plain. The older town, built on the mountain slope, descends to the French-built sector spread along the road to Algiers and containing the business and industrial quarters.

Ruins remain of the small Roman veterans’ town of Saldae and of the successive Berber (Amazigh) settlement of the Bejaïa tribe, which gained importance as a fortified Ḥammādid capital in 1067. During the Middle Ages, Bougie was a pirate stronghold and was contested by various powers. It traded with Europe and introduced the wax candle (French: bougie). The Spanish occupation (1510–55), the town’s subsequent capture by the Turks, and the predominance of Algiers relegated the port to minor importance until the French occupation (1833) and the improvement of its harbour (1905–09).

Bejaïa is a busy market town for the Kabylie area and exports minerals (iron ore, phosphates), foodstuffs (olive oil, wine), and cork. After 1959, with the arrival of the oil pipeline from Hassi Messaoud, it became a leading port for the shipment of crude oil from the Sahara. Pop. (1998) 147,076; (2008) 176,140.