BOUGIE  , a seaport of

Algeria, chief town of an arrondissement in the department of Constantine, 120 M . E. of Algiers . The town, which is defended by a wall built since the French occupation, and by detached forts, is beautifully situated on the slope of Mount Guraya . Behind it are the heights of Mounts Babor and Tababort, rising some 6400 ft. and crowned with forests of pinsapo fir and cedar . The most interesting buildings in the town are the ancient forts, Borj-el-Ahmer and Abd-el-Kader, and the kasbah or citadel, rectangular in form, flanked by bastions and towers, and bearing inscriptions stating that it was built by the Spaniards in 1545 . Parts of the Roman wall exist, and considerable portions of that built by the Hammadites in the 11th century . The streets are very steep, and many are ascended by stairs . The harbour, sheltered from the east by a breakwater, was enlarged in 1897-1902 . It covers 63 acres and has a depth of water of 23 to 30 ft . Bougie is the natural port of Kabylia, and under the French rule its commerce—chiefly in oils, wools, hides and minerals—has greatly developed; a branch railway runs to Beni Mansur on the main line from Constantine to Oran . Pop . (1906) of the town, 10,419; of the commune, 17,540; of the arrondissement, which includes eight communes, 37,711 .

Bougie, if it be correctly identified with the Saldae of the

Romans, is a town of great antiquity, and probably owes its origin to the Carthaginians . Early in the 5th century Genseric the Vandal surrounded it with walls and for some time made it his capital . En-Nasr (1062-1088), the most powerful of the Berber dynasty of Hammad, made Bougie the seat of his government, and it became the greatest commercial centre of the North African coast, attaining a high degree of civilization . From an old MS. it appears that as early as ,o68 the heliograph was in common use, special towers, with mirrors properly arranged, being built for the purpose of signalling . The Italian merchants of the 12th and 13th centuries owned numerous buildings in the city, such as warehouses, baths and churches . At the end of the 13th century Bougie passed under the dominion of the Hafsides, and in the 15th century it became one of the strong-holds of the Barbary pirates . It enjoyed partial independence under amirs of Hafside origin, but in January 1510 was captured by the Spaniards under Pedro Navarro . The Spaniards strongly fortified the place and held it against two attacks by the corsairs Barbarossa . In 1555, however, Bougie was taken by Salah Rais, the pasha of Algiers . Leo Africanus, in his Africae descriptio, speaks of the " magnificence " of the temples, palaces and other buildings of the city in his day (c . 1525), but it appears to have fallen into decay not long afterwards . When the French took the town from the Algerians in 1833 it consisted of little more than a few fortifications and ruins .

It is said that the French word for a

candle is derived from the name of the town, candles being first made of wax imported from Bougie .