Dear Reader (2025-10-24 – posted simultaneously to FB)
For the next two posts or so, you and I will wander and explore Constantine. Though Algiers is much larger, Constantine felt more vibrant. Our hotel here was also notable for being only one of two hotels we stayed at that had a bar. Throughout Algeria, none of the restaurants we went to were licensed.
“Constantine is located about 80 kilometres from the Mediterranean coast, on the banks of the Rhumel River. Constantine is regarded as the capital of eastern Algeria and the commercial centre of its region and has a population of about 450,000 (about 1,000,000 including the surrounding area), making it the third largest city in the country after Algiers and Oran. There are several museums and historical sites located around the city. Constantine is often referred to as the “City of Bridges” because of the numerous picturesque bridges connecting the various hills, valleys, and ravines that the city is built on and around.” (1)
“In 1880, while working in the military hospital in Constantine, Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran discovered that the cause of malaria is a protozoan. He observed the parasites in a blood smear taken from a soldier who had just died of malaria. For this, he received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.” (1)
Footnotes
~ (1) – adapted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine,_Algeria
Notes on Photos
~ 04 – 06 – One of the two mosques in Algeria, where infidels are allowed to enter.
~ 07 – In the post Algeria-01 (2025-10-02), I mentioned that my major photographic constraint was that the only camera available to me on this trip was the one on my mid-range phone. Interesting things happen when using digital zoom in low light, which is then further enhanced in post.
~ 08 – All the French sculptural adornments have been removed from this arch. I can’t remember if that was done in 62 after independence or during the dark decade. I don’t know the two people.
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Cheers, Sean
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Maybe I shouldn’t be commenting. I finished editing 600+ Halloween photos down to 200 or so last night and this morning, and my eyes are still geared towards lots of people in tough light. None the less.
1-I’m getting a funny read on this one; my first thought was a prison on a snowy day. Except I don’t think it snows in Algeria.
2- I quite like the image, although I can’t quite decide if the leg sticking into the frame adds to it or subtracts.
4- What lovely space! Interesting that of the 3 people visible, all are sitting on the far side of the pillars.
5- How long did you have to wait to capture this? Such a lovely sense of serenity.
6- Often big buildings with the imposing steps up to the front are difficult to capture, but this is quite lovely in the nice light.
7- Honestly, I was wondering why this was included. It’s wonderfully composed, but my first thought was you had blown the focus, and the next frame fixed it, and then somehow you had mixed up which got edited and exported.
8- A much more typical photo of such a thing, and the strangers in it add to it. I always wonder what the people in the photo are thinking as the photo is being taken.
9- Best of the bunch! There’s something about one tree in the frame that is interesting, especially if the background is a city.