Sétif [key], ancient Sitifis, city (1998 pop. 211,859), capital of Sétif prov., NE Algeria. It is the commercial center of a region where native textiles and phosphates are manufactured and cereals are grown. Sétif was built by the French on the ruins of the Roman town of Sitifis, founded in the 1st cent. a.d. In 1945, more than 100 Europeans were killed in a revolt against French rule; it resulted in a bloody reprisal in which more than 6,000 Muslims died. There is a Roman mausoleum on the outskirts of the city.
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