Classroom lesson 路 Constantine - the city of bridges馃嚛馃嚳 Algeria

Constantine - the city of bridges

A clifftop city split by a deep gorge and joined by amazing bridges

The dramatic suspension bridge spanning the deep gorge that splits the city of Constantine

Photo 路 Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

Constantine is a city in eastern Algeria built on top of a cliff. A deep canyon - more than 100 metres straight down - slices right through the middle of the city. To get from one side to the other, people cross on huge bridges suspended high in the air. Constantine is famous all over Africa for those bridges.

Tell me more

The canyon is called the Rhumel Gorge. It is so deep that the river running through the bottom looks tiny from above. Houses sit right at the edge of the cliffs, and from a balcony you can sometimes see eagles flying below you instead of above.

There are seven main bridges. The most famous is the Sidi M'Cid suspension bridge - when it was built in 1912, it was the highest bridge in the world. Walking across it feels like walking across the sky. Wind moves through the cables and the whole bridge gently sways.

Constantine has been a city for around 2,500 years. It is one of the oldest continuously lived-in places in the world. People built here because the cliffs made it easy to defend - you can only get up the hill from a few directions.

The city is also famous for its music. A special kind of slow, beautiful Algerian music called 'malouf' was developed here. Music shops, caf茅s and old streets full of tiled buildings still fill the old town. Constantine has been called Algeria's 'City of Music' as well as the 'City of Bridges'.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01Why might people have decided to build a whole city on top of cliffs?
  2. 02What would it feel like to walk across a bridge so high that eagles fly below you?
  3. 03Constantine is called the 'City of Bridges'. If our town had a nickname, what would it be?
Try this

Classroom activity

Using straws, paper and tape, design a bridge that can span a 30 cm gap between two desks. Test how much weight (coins, books) it can hold. Talk about how engineers in Constantine had to make bridges much longer and stronger to cross the gorge.