After two days in Algiers, we drove five hours to Constantine. Our guide said it’s known as the City of Bridges and as the Arab capital of culture. The Rhumel River gorge has evidence of prehistoric settlement and Constantine has been well settled since at least the 3rd century BC. The main reason for this is probably that it’s a natural fortress. The city occupies a rocky plateau that is surrounded, except at the southwest, by a steep and deep gorge that is not subject to assault. The gorge is probably between 500 and 1,000 feet below the city and also very wide in most places.

Since Constantine is known as the City of Bridges, I thought I would start off our visit here with some of the bridges that we saw and that we crossed during our stay here. These photos will also let you see the lay of the land around Constantine.

These are photos of a few of the bridges of Constantine. It has lots of bridges.

The first bridge photo was taken from our hotel room. It’s the Sidi Rached bridge or viaduct which crosses the Rhumel gorges. It was built between 1908 and 1912. It’s over 1,500 feet long and has 27 arches. The tallest arch is 230 feet high.

The next bridge photo was also taken from our hotel room. It’s just to the right of the first bridge photo. It’s the Salah Bey Bridge and is the newest bridge in Constantine. It opened in 2014 and is 2,460 feet long and over 800 feet high.

This is the Sidi M’Cid Bridge, also known as the Gantaret El Hibal bridge. It’s the most famous bridge in Constantine. It opened in 1912 and for the next 17 years, it was the highest bridge in the world at 574 feet. We walked across this bridge though it also has vehicle traffic. We walked across it again the next night when it was colorfully lighted.

This is the El Kantara Bridge, also spanning the Rhumel river and gorge.

The last photo is the Mellah-Slimane suspension footbridge. It’s 410 feet long, 360 feet high, and eight feet wide. It opened in 1925. We walked across this bridge heading for Old Town and some lunch. Our restaurant was just to the upper right of the end of the bridge.