Algiers IPA-en�l?d???rz (lang-ar???????, al-Djaz??ir), is the capital (Capital (political)) and largest city of Algeria and the second largest of the Maghreb after Casablanca. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. A recent UN estimate of the urban agglomeration (metropolitan area) puts the population at 3,354,000 as of 2007.

Called El-Bahdja (??????) or alternatively Alger la Blanche ("Algiers the White") for the glistening white of its buildings as seen rising up from the sea, Algiers is situated on the west side of a bay of the Mediterranean Sea. The city name is derived (via French (French language) Alger and Catalan (Catalan language) Algu�re) from the Arabic word ??????? al-jaz??ir, which translates as the islands, referring to the four islands which lay off the citys coast until becoming part of the mainland in 1525. Al-jaz??ir is itself a truncated form of the citys older name ????? ??? ?????? jaz??ir ban? mazghann?, "the islands of (the tribe) Bani Mazghanna", used by early medieval geographers such as al-Idrisi and Yaqut al-Hamawi.

The modern part of the city is built on the level ground by the seashore; the old part, the ancient city of the deys, climbs the steep hill behind the modern town and is crowned by the casbah or citadel, convert400ft0 above the sea. The casbah and the two quays form a triangle.