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Arzew or Arzeu (, ) is a seaport city in Algeria, 25 miles (40 km) from Oran. It is the capital of Arzew District, Oran Province.
Nearby Bethioua was on the ruins of the Phoenicia of Ancient Carthage before becoming the Portus Magnus ("Great Port") under the Ancient Rome, although the name was used on Arzew's coat of arms under French Algeria. Portus Magnus was a Roman colony or otherwise received citizen statusPliny, Nat. Hist., Book V, Ch. 1. and exported grain and salt. Arsenaria was a nearby settlement 3 (km) inland from the sea. Portus Magnus was destroyed during the Vandal Kingdom conquest of northwest Africa in AD 429 or 430 but saw some use by the Byzantines after their 6th-century recovery of the area, leaving some Christian remains. After the 7th-century Islamic conquest, the site seems to have been entirely abandoned, El Bekri describing " Arzao" as having only empty Roman ruins . The Almohad dynasty refounded the port as Bethioua in 1162. Under the , this port near Tlemcen was renamed Marsa Ben Zian ("Port of the Sons of Zian"). The Roman relics remaining at Bethioua into the early modern period were mostly removed to the provincial museum at Oran during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Upon the Treaty of Desmichels, Arzew was organized as part of French Algeria, initially under the spelling Arzowe. King Louis-Philippe ordered the establishment of the port of Arzew (Arzew Le Port) on 12 August 1845. French colonists settled the area, which was declared a commune on 31 December 1856. Many Spaniards immigrants also came, and Arzew became a hub for the production and export of esparto, a kind of grass used for rope. The town was badly damaged by an earthquake in 1912. The area was important during Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa during World War II.
During the Algerian War of Independence, the city hosted one of the two SDECE French intelligence CIPCGs (Centre d'instruction à la pacification et à la contre-guérilla
French Algeria
During the July Monarchy conquest of Algeria, a French force from Oran marched east to capture Marsa on 10 July 1833. The French army then used the area as a logistics hub, including during the Battle of Macta.
Modern Algeria
After the Algerian War in 1962, Arzew became an important port and industrial area, home to a Oil refinery exporting LNG (liquified natural gas), as well as a fleet of small fishing to work the local waters.
Demography
Culture
During the French colonial era, the settlers introduced a Roman Catholic celebration on August 15 -Assumption of Mary day- known as the "Procession of the Virgin Mary" ( la Procession de la Vierge).
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