Djelfa ( ar, الجلفة, link=no, al-Ǧilfah) is the capital city of

Djelfa Province Djelfa ( ar, ولاية الجلفة) is a province (''wilaya'') of Algeria. Its capital is Djelfa. It was first established by the administrative reorganization of 1974, and is home to over 1.2 million inhabitants. Localities in this province ...

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

and the site of ancient city and former bishopric Fallaba, which remains a Latin catholic

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...

. It has a population of 490,248 (2018 census). The city lies at the junction of the N1 and the N46 roads.

Geography

Djelfa is located at an elevation of 3,734 feet (1,138 m) in the Ouled Naïl Range of north-central

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

, between the towns of Bousaada and

Laghouat Laghouat ( ar, الأغواط; en, Laghwat) is the capital of the Laghouat Province, Algeria, south of the Algerian capital Algiers. Located in the Amour Range of the Saharan Atlas, the town is an oasis on the north edge of the Sahara Des ...

. It is situated in a transitional zone between the dry, steppe-like Hautes Plaines (high plateaus) of the north, characterized by

chott In geology, a chott, shott, or shatt (; ar, شط, šaṭṭ, lit=bank, coast) is a salt lake in Africa's Maghreb that stays dry for much of the year but receives some water in the winter. The elevation of a chott surface is controlled by the po ...

s (intermittent salt lakes), and the

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

to the south. The town was founded in 1852 as a French military post on a geometric plan. It serves as an important

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to ani ...

market centre for the semi-

nomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...

ic Ouled Naïl confederation. Djelfa is on the 12,000 mile-long Africa Trail. The surrounding region for centuries has been the meeting place of the Ouled Naïl people, who live in black-and-red striped tents and claim descent from the Islamic prophet,

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mon ...

History

The area is notable for its abundance of

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

rock carvings dating from 7000 to 5000 BC. North of Djelfa town there is an imposing physical feature known as Rocher de Sel (English: Salt Rock) that resulted from the erosion of rock salts and marls by rain. To the west of the town Megalithic funerary structures are found. During the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

, a Roman town called Fallaba was built on the site of Djelfa.Fallaba
at www.gcatholic.org That town lasted unto

late antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English h ...

. In the 11th century, the

Fatimids The Fatimid Caliphate was an Isma'ilism, Ismaili Shia Islam, Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the ea ...

sent the

Banu Hilal The Banu Hilal ( ar, بنو هلال, translit=Banū Hilāl) was a confederation of Arabian tribes from the Hejaz and Najd regions of the Arabian Peninsula that emigrated to North Africa in the 11th century. Masters of the vast plateaux of t ...

to the

Tripolitania Tripolitania ( ar, طرابلس '; ber, Ṭrables, script=Latn; from Vulgar Latin: , from la, Regio Tripolitana, from grc-gre, Τριπολιτάνια), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province o ...

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

and Constantine areas against the

Zirids The Zirid dynasty ( ar, الزيريون, translit=az-zīriyyūn), Banu Ziri ( ar, بنو زيري, translit=banū zīrī), or the Zirid state ( ar, الدولة الزيرية, translit=ad-dawla az-zīriyya) was a Sanhaja Berber dynasty from ...

. The town became an important trading post during the Hafsid era. During

Philippe Pétain Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), commonly known as Philippe Pétain (, ) or Marshal Pétain (french: Maréchal Pétain), was a French general who attained the position of Marshal of France at the end of Worl ...

's period, a concentration camp was placed in Djelfa.

Ecclesiastical history

During the Vandal Kingdom and

the town was the

seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but also headquarters in a wider sense. Types of seat The following are examples of different kinds of seat: * Armchair, a chair ...

of an

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cov ...

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

. The bishopric was important enough in the Late

Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

Numidia Numidia ( Berber: ''Inumiden''; 202–40 BC) was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians located in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up modern-day Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunis ...

to become one of the many suffragan bishoprics of its Metropolitan Archbishopric in

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...

.La sede titolare
at catholic-hierarchy.org. It is possible that Christianity came to the town only after the rule of

Constantine the Great Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to convert to Christianity. Born in Naissus, Dacia Mediterran ...

, as there is no record of the bishopric under the Romans. The only known bishop of this African diocese is the Catholic bishop Salo mentioned in 484. This is considerably late compared to many of the other diocese in Numidia. Bishop Salo took part in the synod assembled in Carthage in 484 by the

Arian Arianism ( grc-x-koine, Ἀρειανισμός, ) is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (), a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God ...

ruler, Huneric of the Vandal Kingdom; after the Synod Salo was exiled (probably) to Vandal-controlled Sicily. Like most bishoprics in Roman Africa, it faded after the

Muslim conquest of the Maghreb The Muslim conquest of the Maghreb ( ar, الْفَتْحُ الإسلَامِيُّ لِلْمَغرِب) continued the century of rapid Muslim conquests following the death of Muhammad in 632 and into the Byzantine-controlled territories of ...

Titular see

In 1933 the diocese was nominally restored as

Latin Catholic , native_name_lang = la , image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran , caption = Archbasilica of Saint Joh ...

titular bishopric A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbish ...

. It has had the following incumbents, mostly of the fitting episcopal (lowest) rank ''with an archiepiscopal (intermediary) exception : *''Titular Archbishop:

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **'' Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **'' Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, t ...

Francesco Morano Francesco Morano (8 June 1872, Caivano, Province of Naples – 12 July 1968) was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Secretary of the Apostolic Signatura in the Roman Curia from 1935 until 1959, and was elevated to ...

(1962.04.05 – 1962.04.20) * Vincent Billington, Mill Hill Missionaries (M.H.M.) (1965.05.03 – 1970.12.07) * Alexius Obabu Makozi (1971.02.20 – 1972.07.30) * Rudolph A. Akanlu (1972.11.16 – 1973.04.13) * James Terry Steib,

Divine Word Missionaries The Society of the Divine Word ( la, Societas Verbi Divini), abbreviated SVD and popularly called the Verbites or the Divine Word Missionaries, and sometimes the Steyler Missionaries, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Ri ...

(S.V.D.) (1983.12.06 – 1993.03.24) * Lorenzo Ceresoli (1993.12.20 – ...),

Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus Bold text The Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus ( la, Missionarii Comboniani Cordis Iesu), abbreviated MCCJ, also known as the Comboni Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, or the Verona Fathers, and originally called the Sons of the Sacred ...

(M.C.C.J.), Apostolic Vicar emeritus of Awasa (Ethiopia)

Culture

The inhabitants are also Ouled Naïl living in

Biskra Biskra ( ar, بسكرة ; ; Latin Vescera) is the capital city of Biskra Province, Algeria. In 2007, its population was recorded as 307,987. Biskra is located in northeastern Algeria, about 248 miles (400 km) from Algiers, 71 miles (115&n ...

M'Sila M'sila (also spelled Msila) ( ar, المسيلة); is the capital of M'Sila Province, Algeria, and is co-extensive with M'sila District. It has a population of 132,975 as per the 2008 census. M'sila University is also located in this city. Hist ...

and in Saharan Atlas.

Climate

Djelfa has a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''BSk''), with more precipitation in winter than in summer. Snow is not unusual in winter.

References

Sources and external links

Djelfa Forums

Djelfa - The capital of the Algerian Highlands
{{Authority control Populated places established in 1852 Communes of Djelfa Province Cities in Algeria Province seats of Algeria 1852 establishments in Algeria Djelfa Province