the Souf

At 600 km southeast of Algiers, Souf is an oasis in the desert. Its capital, El-Oued, derives its prosperity and reputation of Deglet Nour dates, varieties produced by its palm groves and exported to Europe. To grow their economy, Sufis have intensified their production by extending irrigated fruit and vegetables destined for markets in large cities. Cereals, fodder and vegetables are grown in large circular plots (each can cover 60 hectares) sprayed by a central pivot. These high power devices greatly reduce production costs. But this reflects more the catastrophe of flowering desert. The massive irrigation and installation of running water in town exhaust the deep aquifer where water is drilled. These water discharged to the surface pollute the superficial layer which swells and now exposed in many places: the houses are won by moisture and lands are invaded by stagnant water that has already asphyxiated a million palm trees.

09:39

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

09:37

M'Zab valley of Wadi

600 km south of Algiers, beyond the mountains of the Saharan Atlas, cities to pink stucco, soft light and narrow streets often covered, strung out along the river Zab, which winds through the plateaus along the Great Western Erg. The climate is harsh, hot and windy and the rare rain. But cities, established by Mozabites the eleventh century, are marvels that have continued to amaze the greatest architects such as Le Corbusier, André Ravéreau or Frank Lloyd Wright. In a special unit, the cities of the Oued M'Zab Valley are all built in height to prevent flooding, rare but violent, and obey the same plane: the houses are built starting from the mosque to the top of the city, down where the walls are located, while the palm trees provide fruit, vegetables and cool during the hot. The houses are organized around a main room whose ceiling pierced by a large square opening delimits the central patio where the family was found. A staircase leads to the terrace, sometimes surrounded with small rooms in which it happens that people are sleeping the winter.

09:34

Tassili n'Ajjer

Tassili n'Ajjer
It is found in the Sahara numerous tombs dating from the Neolithic period (period from the onset of agriculture, there are about 10 000 years, until the invention of writing there are 5 000-4 000 years). These are most often simple graves covered with clusters of homogeneous stones, tumulus. In the Tassili n'Ajjer, these tombs are particularly numerous enclosures. The oldest date back to about 5500 years. Systematically dug in the hills, they spot from afar. A first circle around the mound under which the burial chamber is located; a second encircles the entire building. Only men are buried there, lying on the side, head eastward. The Sahara is rich with thousands of engraved or painted materials millennia BCE, that make this desert the largest open-air museum of the Neolithic period.

06:48

Aïn Touta

Aïn Touta
The old colonial village of Ain Touta, created in 1872, 35 km from Patna, has become an important agricultural area of 34 000 inhabitants. The relationship to the land is a key element of the Algerian collective identity. Indeed, during the French colonization, almost half of the 7.5 million hectares of agricultural land was confiscated to homeowners to be granted to the settlers. After independence, the agrarian reform caused a crisis of the peasantry and a mass exodus to the cities. But since the turn of the century, agriculture has become a new growth engine. Contributing about 12% of GDP and employs 25% of the active population. Yet this remains insufficient and Algeria still has to import food: consumption of cereals, milk and dairy products, oils and fats, sugars and sweets, as well as products of the milling industry.

06:46

Oued el Hamiz

Oued el Hamiz
The rapid urbanization of Algeria, coupled with the absence of a policy of the city during the past thirty years, has promoted the development of substandard housing, or foxhole. Originally the hut was the little house Summary Algerian countryside, almost a shack; by extension, the term refers to the slums of the country today. The capital has between 2.4 and 4 million, much of which is piled up in the slums of the city center. But slums extend further and further in the periphery, as to encroach on agricultural land. Thus, a shack has developed throughout the Wadi El-Hamiz, and the river serves as open sewer. Blocked by private property, its linear extension is confined to the banks of the river, not urbanized classified by the government. The sanitary conditions are deplorable and the people suffer such severe skin conditions. Pollution many wadis is a major public health problem in Algeria.

06:45

Bni Mzab

Bni Mzab
El-Atteuf, Bounoura, Mlika, Beni and Izguen Ghardaia form the pentapole (set of five cities) of the M'Zab Valley. Organized confederation, they were built in the eleventh century by followers of a legalistic conception of Islam, refugees in the valley of the Sahara, 600 km from Algiers: Ibadi. Religious education still plays a key role in the company Mozabite (named after the river Zab). A federal religious council (Halka of Azzaba) governs the eight Ibadi cities (the Pentapolis, over the most recent three cities). The Halka is a unique college Islamic power in the world. It is responsible for strict compliance with the precepts of the Ibadi doctrine, dispute settlement and all matters relating to the life of the community: the given weight of gold as dowry to women with the duration of marriage ceremonies through the terrible "blacklisting". But since the discovery of oil and gas in the valley cities Zab became the hub of southern Algeria, and it is now easier for Ibadi, to transgress the many taboos in their community.

06:43