Sidi Bel Abbes

The city unfolds on the banks of the Mekerra (Arabic واد مكرة, former local name of Sig) and the Wadi Sarno. It is at the center of a vast undulating plain 500 m mid-altitude, between the mountains of Tessala north and the mountains of Daya south. Tessala chain separates the plains of Mleta and Tlelat. To the east, a series of hills extend to the mountains that support the highlands while in the west are the mountains of Tlemcen (Tlemcen Mountains) and Ain Témouchent (Djebel Seba Chioukh) .
Although the site of Sidi Bel Abbès is strategic as it allows control of the nomads from the south in the Tell and the road between Mascara and Tlemcen, there is erected a fortress from 1835 by the French military