n.
ancient Cirta
City (pop., 1998: 807,371), northeastern Algeria.
A natural fortress, it is situated on a rocky height some 800 ft (250 m) above the Rhumel River valley. By the 3rd century BC it was one of Numidia 's most important towns, and it reached its apex of prosperity under Micipsa in the 2nd century BC. Ruined in subsequent wars, it was restored in AD 313 and renamed for its patron, the Roman emperor Constantine the Great . Overrun by the Arabs in the 7th century, it was ruled by a series of Arab and Berber dynasties and, intermittently, by the Ottoman Empire until it was captured by the French in 1837. Occupied in 1942 by U.S. troops, it was an important Allied staging area in World War II (193945). The city retains its medieval walls, and there are Roman ruins nearby. It is an agricultural market for the surrounding area.