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CHERCHEL

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 83 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHERCHEL , a seaport of See also:

Algeria, in the See also:arrondissement and See also:department of See also:Algiers, 55 M. W. of the See also:capital. It is the centre of an agricultural and See also:vine-growing See also:district, but is commercially of no See also:great importance, the See also:port, which consists of See also:part only of the inner port of See also:Roman days, being small and the entry difficult. The See also:town is chiefly noteworthy for the extensive ruins of former cities on the same site. Of existing buildings the most remarkable is the great See also:Mosque of the See also:Hundred Columns, now used as a military See also:hospital. The mosque contains 89 columns of See also:diorite, surmounted by a variety of capitals brought from other buildings. The See also:population of the town in 1906 was 4733; of the See also:commune of which Cherchel is the centre I r,o88. Cherchel was a See also:city of the Carthaginians, who named it Jol. See also:Juba II. (25 B.C.) made it the capital of the Mauxetanian See also:kingdom under the name of Caesarea. Juba's See also:tomb, the so-called Tombeau de la Chretienne (see ALGERIA), is 71 M. E. of the town.

Destroyed by the See also:

Vandals, Caesarea regained some of its importance under the Byzantines. Taken by the See also:Arabs it was renamed by them Cherchel. Khair-ed-Din See also:Barbarossa captured the city in 1520 and annexed it to his Algerian pashalik. In the See also:early years of the 18th See also:century it was a commercial city of some importance, but was laid in ruins by a terrible See also:earthquake in 1738. In 1840 the town was occupied by the See also:French. The ruins suffered greatly from vandalism during the early See also:period of French See also:rule, many portable See also:objects being removed to museums in See also:Paris or Algiers, and most of the monuments destroyed for the See also:sake of their See also:stone. Thus the dressed stones of the See also:ancient See also:theatre served to build See also:barracks; the material of the See also:hippodrome went to build the See also:church; while the See also:portico of the hippodrome, supported by See also:granite and See also:marble columns, and approached by a See also:fine See also:flight of steps, was destroyed by See also:Cardinal See also:Lavigerie in a See also:search for the tomb of St Marciana. The fort built by Arouj Barbarossa, See also:elder See also:brother of Khair-ed-Din, was completely destroyed by the French. There are many fragments of a See also:white marble See also:temple. The ancient cisterns still See also:supply the town with See also:water. The museum contains some of the finest statues discovered in See also:Africa. They include See also:colossal figures of See also:Aesculapius and Bacchus, and the See also:lower See also:half of a seated See also:Egyptian divinity in See also:black See also:basalt, bearing the cartoache of Tethmosis (Thothmes) I.

This statue was found at Cherchel, and is held by some archaeologists to indicate an Egyptian See also:

settlement here about 1500 B.C. See AFRICA, ROMAN, and the description of the museum by P. Gauckler in the Musees et collections archeologiques de l'Algerie.

End of Article: CHERCHEL

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