LA CALLE, or La Cala, a seaport town of Algeria, in the province of Constantine, the centre of the Algerian and Tunisian coral fisheries. It lies.40 miles east of Bone and 10 miles from the Tunisian frontiers. The harbour is small and inconvenient, but it is proposed to construct a military port and harbour of refuge a little to the west. La Calle proper, or the old fortified town, is built on a ridge of rocks about 400 yards long, connected with the mainland by a bank of sand; but a new town has grown up along the coast. Besides the coral fisheries the curing of sardines is largely carried on. The population, without the garrison, was 3308 in 1871.

La Calle is mentioned as Mersa el Kharez by El Bekri (see Journ. Asiat., 1859), and was even then the residence of coral merchants. In the early part of the 18th century it was the seat of an English trading factory, but on the failure of the company the French-African Company moved their factory from Bastion de la France to La Calle. The company was suppressed in 1794. In 1806 Mr Blanckley, British consul-general at Algiers, obtained the right of occupying Bone and La Calle for an annual rent of £11,000; but though the money was paid for several years no practical effect was given to the agreement. The French regained possession in 1817, were expelled during the wars of 1827, but returned and rebuilt the place in 1836.

See Abbé Poiret, Voyage en Barbarie, Paris, 1787; Broughton, Six Years in Algeria; and Playfair, Travels in the Footsteps of Bruce.