Thénia (الثنية), sometimes written as Thenia, with around 40,000 inhabitants, is the chief town in the daïra of the same name, in the wilayaofBoumerdès, in northern Algeria. Historically, the name is a contraction of "Theniet Beni Aicha" (ثنية بني عائشة) ("the mountain pass of the sons of Aisha"), the Arabic translation of the Kabyle Berber toponym Tizi n At Ɛica. The steep-sided pass, which is only about 800 metres (2,600 ft) wide at its narrowest point, is sometimes taken to mark the transition between Mitidja and Grande Kabylie.[2]
Thénia is located on the main road from Algiers to Constantine, about 40 kilometres (25 mi) east of Algiers, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) inland from the coast, at an altitude of 300 metres (980 ft).[3] Between the town and the coast, the scrub-covered Djebel bou Arous rises to a height of around 400 metres (1,300 ft) and then falls more gently to the coast. South and east is the valley of the Isser River, whose sides rise to around 600 metres (2,000 ft) and are deeply incised by streams. In many places the slopes are covered with vineyards and olive-groves.
During the French occupation, the town was renamed Ménerville, after Charles-Louis Pinson de Ménerville (1808–76), the first president of the court of appeals in Algiers.[4] It resumed the name of Thénia a few years after independence in 1962.
In 1944, the town had 2,656 inhabitants, of whom the majority, 1,929, were European pieds noirs while the commune or district had 12,755, of whom 2,640 were pieds noirs.[2]
Thénia was very near to the offshore epicenter of the 21 May 2003 Boumerdès earthquake, the strongest earthquake to hit Algeria since 1980.[5]
At least four people were killed and around 20 injured by a car bomb outside a police station in the town on 29 January 2008.[6]
^"Statoids". Archived from the original on 2017-07-18. Retrieved 2008-05-22.
^ abAlgeria. Geographical Handbook Series. Vol. II, B. R. 505 A (Restricted). British Naval Intelligence Division. May 1944.
^Excerpt from the 1962 Michelin map of Algeria: "Carte Michelin Ménerville". Geneawiki. Archived from the original on 2024-05-21. Retrieved 2008-03-16.
