Constantine: the city of suspended bridges over the gorges

Built on a rocky plateau cut by deep ravines, Constantine remains connected by spectacular suspended bridges that earn it the nickname 'city of bridges'.

The center is comfortably explored on foot; the bridges connect the neighborhoods on both sides of the ravine.

The Sidi M'Cid Bridge, suspended over one hundred seventy-five meters above the gorge of the Rhumel River, remains among the world's highest pedestrian bridges.

Steps away, the Palace of Ahmed Bey, an Ottoman residence from the nineteenth century with over three hundred columns, remains one of North Africa's most sumptuous Islamic buildings.

Walking along the gorge, you cross the Sidi Rached Bridge, a stone viaduct with twenty-seven arches built by the French at the start of the twentieth century.

Toward evening, the Emir Abdelkader Mosque, among North Africa's largest, closes the day with its imposing contemporary architecture.

Constantine is bisected by the Rhumel River Gorge, plunging up to two hundred metres deep, a geological feature that necessitated the construction of seven different bridges over the centuries to connect the city's quarters.

The Ahmed Bey Palace, built in the nineteenth century by the region's last Ottoman bey, employed artisans brought specifically from Italy and Tunisia to adorn ceilings and walls with precious marbles and ornamental plasterwork.