ARZEW

also spelled Arzeu, port town, northwestern Algeria. Arzew lies near the mouth of the Wadi Mehgoun. Its natural harbour on the Mediterranean is sheltered by a mountainous promontory between the gulfs of Oran and Arzew. Arzew was an Almohad port in the 1100s. It was visited by Italian merchants in the 14th and 15th centuries and was captured and fortified by the Turks in the 16th. Occupied by the Algerian emir Abdelkader in 1831, the town was taken by the French two years later and annexed to France by treaty in 1837. The walled town grew around the anchorage, with the Arab sector to the southwest near the ruined Roman settlement, Portus Magnus. Petrochemical products, esparto grass, salt (from Salines d'Arzew, 9 miles south), wine, cereals, and cattle are exported, and there is some commercial fishing. Arzew is connected by pipelines with the Hassi R'Mel natural gas fields and the Hassi Messaoud oil fields. The town's industry includes a natural gas liquification plant, a fertilizer plant, and sulfur and oil refineries. Pop. (1987 prelim.) 35,784.