A history of the wilaya of Annaba

Hippo Regius

The natural harbour between Cap de Garde and Cap Rosa drew the Phoenicians in ancient times, and they founded a trading post there. The town of Annaba later became a residence of the Numidian kings, and then a Roman colony.

Under Rome, as Hippo Regius, it was one of the great cities of the province of Africa Nova. Hippo Regius was also a centre of Christian thought and held a church council, a meeting of bishops, in 393.

Saint Augustine was bishop of Hippo from 396 and died in Hippo in 430.

The stone of Chetaïbi

Porphyry, a hard decorative stone, was quarried around Chetaïbi in antiquity and shipped to Rome. Much later, granite brought wealth to Chetaïbi, as stone from its quarry paved the streets of French towns as far as Paris.

Iron ore and the railway

The Mokta el Hadid company mined the iron ore of the area of Berrahal, north of Lake Fetzara. Its private railway carried the ore to the port of Annaba, and the first section, from the Karezas deposit, dates from 1859. In 1867 a Paris newspaper described a line of 28 km.

In the late 1870s the same company began works to drain Lake Fetzara, and the lake was later largely drained.

After independence

The El Hadjar iron and steel complex, named after the neighbouring town of El Hadjar, stands in Sidi Ammar. Its first unit began work in 1969.

Badji Mokhtar University of Annaba was created on 29 April 1975 from the buildings of the Institute of Mines and Metallurgy of Annaba. Sidi Ammar is the first of its sites, and the rectorate stands on its campus, next to the central library.

The university also has a site at El Bouni, known as the El Bouni university pole. The pole holds the faculty of human and social sciences and the faculty of law and political science, and medical sciences are also taught there. In 2025 a university residence of 3,000 beds stood on the pole.

Mohamed Boudiaf, head of state, died in Annaba on 29 June 1992.