The cave of Afalou Bou Rhummel, at Melbou, is one of the main burial sites of the Iberomaurusians, also called the Mechta-Afalou. These were the last Stone Age hunters of North Africa. Archaeologists first excavated the cave in 1928.
Prehistory
The cave of Afalou Bou Rhummel, at Melbou, is one of the main burial sites of the Iberomaurusians, also called the Mechta-Afalou. These were the last Stone Age hunters of North Africa. Archaeologists first excavated the cave in 1928.
Phoenicians and Romans
The Phoenicians chose the site of Béjaïa for a trading post, which the Romans kept. Under the emperor Augustus, the town of Saldae became a colony of army veterans.
About 3 km from El Kseur, at the place called Tiklat, lies the ancient site of Tubusuptu. Octavian, later the emperor Augustus, founded it towards the end of the 1st century BC as a colony for veterans, retired Roman soldiers. The site lies in a valley on the left bank of the Soummam river.
A spring rises from the mountain above the village of Toudja. In the 2nd century AD, the Romans began to carry its water to Saldae, the town now called Béjaïa. The water travelled by an aqueduct, a channel built to carry water, with a bridge and a tunnel.
A medieval capital
In 435 the Vandal king Genseric made Saldae his capital. Under the Hammadid ruler An Nasir, who reigned from 1062 to 1088, Béjaïa became the new capital of the dynasty, a fortified town. With the Qal'a of the Beni Hammad, it was then one of the 2 main cities of the central Maghreb.
Early in the 12th century the reformer Ibn Tumart stayed at Mellala, a village of Oued Ghir. There he met Abd al-Mumin, who became his successor and the first Almohad caliph.
Leonardo of Pisa, called Fibonacci, was taught mathematics in Béjaïa as a boy, while his father represented the Pisan merchants there. In Béjaïa he learned the Hindu Arabic numerals, which his book Liber abaci of 1202 introduced to Europe.
In 1365 the historian Ibn Khaldun became grand vizier, or prime minister, at Béjaïa for its prince Abu Abdallah.
Centres of learning
The zaouia of Chellata, a religious school and lodge, drew students from the whole Maghreb. Djamil Aissani, of the University of Béjaïa, calls it one of the most renowned religious and scientific centres of North Africa. Its scholars took an interest in astronomy, and the astronomer Mohammad ash Shellati is linked with it.
Sidi Aïch lies in the country of the Ath Waghlis, a Kabyle tribe. In the medieval period, the Ath Waghlis already had the reputation of a tribe devoted to study and the sciences. The jurist Abderrahmane El Waghlissi, who died in 1384, came from this tribe.
Spanish, Ottoman and French rule
Spain held the town of Béjaïa from 1510 to 1555, Ottoman rule followed, and French rule lasted from 1833 until independence in 1962.
Timezrit once had an iron mine, which produced hematite, an iron ore, on the left bank of the Soummam, about 30 km west of Béjaïa. An aerial cableway of 3 km linked it to El Maten station, on the railway from Béjaïa to Beni Mansour.
Mining continued through the colonial period, and in 1953 the miners held a strike of about 9 months. By 2019 the mine had closed, but its galleries, workshops, workers' housing, bathhouse and cinema still stood.
Recent times
Cheikh Aheddad died in Constantine. In 2009 his remains were brought back and buried at Seddouk Oufella, a village of Seddouk. On 25 April 2009, the Cheikh Aheddad rural ensemble at Seddouk Oufella was entered on the supplementary inventory of cultural property.
Abderrahmane Fares was born at Akbou in 1911 and died in 1991. The judoka Soraya Haddad was born at El Kseur on 30 September 1984. At the 2008 Olympic Games, she won the bronze medal in the women's 52 kg class.
Since 2014, Tichy has had a cooperation agreement with the French town of Épinay-sur-Seine. According to Épinay, many of its people come from Tichy and its region.
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