Cafés. Café Germain, Place de Nemours; Café Glacier, Place du Palais 8; Café Honorat, in the Hôt. de Paris, Place de Nemours (music in the evening).—Restaurants (beer). Taverne Gambrinus, Rue Caraman 6; Brasserie de l’Etoile, Place de Nemours.
Post & Telegraph Office (Pl. 10; B, 5), Place de Nemours.
Cabs (stand, Place de Nemours), first ½ hr. 1¼ (after 10 p.m. 1½) fr.; for 1 hr. 2½, each addit. ½ hr. 1 fr.; half-day (6 hrs.) 10, whole day (12 hrs.) 20 fr.—Omnibus from the Place de Nemours to the Station 10, trunk 25 c.; also to the Faubourg St. Jean.
Baths. Bains Lyonnais, Rue Damrémont; Bains Rémès, in the ravine of the Rhumel (p. [302]).
Booksellers. Braham, Rue du Palais 4; Roubille, Rue Damrémont 37.—Newspaper. Dépêche de Constantine.
Theatre. Théâtre Municipal (Pl. B, 5; Nov.–Feb. only), Place de Nemours.
One Day. Forenoon, Place de Nemours and Squares, Museum, Palais de Hadj Ahmed, Jewish Quarter, *Quartier Perrégaux (pp. [299]–301). Afternoon, *Gorges du Rhumel (p. [301]). Guide quite unnecessary.
Constantine (1752–2113 ft.; pop. 55,000, incl. 28,300 Mohammedans and 8300 Jews), Arabic Ksantina or Blad el-Hawa (‘cité aérienne’, ‘town of air’), the capital of the province of that name and the seat of a bishop and of a medersa (Mohammedan college), is the third-largest town in Algeria. The old town, typically Berber in its difficulty of access, lies on a chalky limestone plateau, descending to the S.E. and N.E. almost perpendicularly to the Ravine of the Rhumel, and to the N.W. to the bed of a brook, while on the S.W. it is connected by a narrow saddle with the spurs of the long Jebel Chettaba (4313 ft.). The town has three suburbs, the small Faubourg d’el-Kantara near the station, and the faubourgs St. Jean and St. Antoine on the margin of the Coudiat-Aty (Pl. A, 5, 6), a hill recently almost levelled to form a building-site.
Constantine is the centre of the Algerian grain-trade and has an important wool-exchange. Several manufactures too are very active (tanning, shoemaking, saddlery, and weaving). The chief centres of trade and manufacture are still the native quarters, resembling the Kasba of Algiers, the picturesque charm of which has so far been marred by the construction of but few new streets. The gay costumes of the Mohammedans and the mediæval attire of the Jewesses are specially interesting.
Constantine has but a poor climate. Spring is the best season for visiting it. In winter the cold (p. [170]) is very severe and the winds are often bitter, while in summer and autumn the hot sirocco is more prevalent than anywhere on the coast. The low ground flanking the Rhumel is malarious from June to October.