Algiers, originally called Al-Jaza'ir, lies in what is today the North African country of Algeria. Built into the Sahel hills, Algiers runs for ten miles along the Bay of Algiers, located on the Mediterranean Coast. The Bay of Algiers, meaning the bay of 'islands' in the prominent Algerian language of Arabic, was filled with small islands, including the historically significant island of Peñon. The city itself faces both north and east. Algiers held great importance as a port due to its prime location on the northern coast of Africa. This coastal location made it perfect for the Barbary pirate stronghold it would become in 1529, when the pirate "Redbeard" expelled the Spanish from the island of Peñon, gaining control of the city for the Ottoman empire. As the most important Ottoman city in the Maghrib region consisting of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, Algiers used its geographical location to the political and economic advantage of the Ottoman empire and of the city itself (Hourani, 229). To the north of the city was situated the Casbah, meaning Turkish fort, which still exists even today except now as a ghetto area with terrible living conditions rather than a Turkish fort ("Algiers" Encyclopaedia of the Orient). The complex labyrinths and a fortress from the 1500s remain in the Kasbah as reminders of the past (Hourani, 229).

Algiers, originally called Al-Jaza'ir, lies in what is today the North African country of Algeria. Built into the Sahel hills, Algiers runs for ten miles along the Bay of Algiers, located on the Mediterranean Coast. The Bay of Algiers, meaning the bay of 'islands' in the prominent Algerian language of Arabic, was filled with small islands, including the historically significant island of Peñon. The city itself faces both north and east. Algiers held great importance as a port due to its prime location on the northern coast of Africa. This coastal location made it perfect for the Barbary pirate stronghold it would become in 1529, when the pirate "Redbeard" expelled the Spanish from the island of Peñon, gaining control of the city for the Ottoman empire. As the most important Ottoman city in the Maghrib region consisting of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, Algiers used its geographical location to the political and economic advantage of the Ottoman empire and of the city itself (Hourani, 229). To the north of the city was situated the Casbah, meaning Turkish fort, which still exists even today except now as a ghetto area with terrible living conditions rather than a Turkish fort ("Algiers" Encyclopaedia of the Orient). The complex labyrinths and a fortress from the 1500s remain in the Kasbah as reminders of the past (Hourani, 229).

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