The Southwest Sahara

The southwest's rocks carry Neolithic engravings, notably around Taghit, from a time when the Sahara was wetter. The oases themselves were made habitable by the foggara, a system of underground channels that brings groundwater from higher ground to the palm gardens, dug and maintained over centuries in the Touat and the Gourara.

The oases prospered as stages on the caravan routes linking the Mediterranean with the Sahel, trading salt, dates, cloth and slaves. Tamentit in the Touat had a prosperous Jewish community until the late 15th century, when it was destroyed at the urging of the preacher al-Maghili. Sufi lodges, the zaouïas, became centres of learning and authority, among them Kenadsa near Béchar, and the region's ties to Morocco's Tafilalt were close.

France took the Saoura and the Touat oases around 1900, and Béchar, as Colomb-Béchar, became a military town. Charles de Foucauld lived at Béni Abbès from 1901 before moving to the Hoggar. France tested rockets at Hammaguir in Béchar province and carried out its first nuclear tests at Reggane, in Adrar province, in 1960–61; some of the sites were still used under agreements after independence. In 1963 Algeria and Morocco fought the brief Sand War over Morocco's claim to parts of the Tindouf and Béchar areas. Since 1975–76 the Tindouf area has hosted refugee camps for Sahrawis from Western Sahara, a disputed territory, most of which is controlled and claimed by Morocco, and which is also claimed by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic proclaimed by the Polisario Front, whose main backer is Algeria.

The Gourara around Timimoun is Zenata Berber country, where Taznatit is still spoken alongside Arabic. Its signature art is the ahellil, a long night-time performance of sung religious poetry by a chorus with flute and drum, recognised by UNESCO as intangible heritage. Timimoun's biggest event is the Sbouâ, a pilgrimage and festival held the week after the Prophet's birthday, when processions with banners converge on the mausoleum of Sidi El Hadj Belkacem.

The Touat, the Saoura and Béchar are mainly Arabic-speaking, with Berber-speaking communities in some ksour, and the population includes the descendants of people brought across the desert from the Sahel, whose music and ceremonies, such as the gnawa-style diwan, remain part of oasis life. Sufi brotherhoods and saints' shrines are deeply respected, and the zaouïa of Kenadsa is one of the region's centres of learning.

In the Tindouf camps, Sahrawi society keeps its own Hassaniya Arabic, poetry, tea rituals and tents, with its own administration run by the Polisario Front, and life is shaped by decades of exile and dependence on international aid. Hospitality everywhere begins with tea and dates.

Béchar is the largest city, with about 165,000 people in 2008; Adrar, Timimoun, Béni Abbès and Tindouf are smaller administrative towns, and Bordj Badji Mokhtar is a remote outpost near the Mali border. Much of the population lives in ksour and new towns strung along the valleys.

Dates are the main crop, with irrigated wheat and greenhouse vegetables around Adrar expanding thanks to deep wells. Many foggaras have dried up as the water table falls, and keeping them alive is a local cause. Government jobs, the army, trade, and winter tourism at Taghit and Timimoun provide much of the work. Around Tindouf, the huge Gara Djebilet iron-ore deposit is being developed as a national project, and a 950-kilometre railway linking the mine to Béchar was completed in January 2026.

In the Sahrawi camps near Tindouf, whose population is disputed, with estimates ranging from about 90,000 to 165,000, residents live in tents and mud-brick houses organised by camp, each named after a town in Western Sahara, and depend largely on food aid. Across the region, days start early and stop in the afternoon heat, and evenings are spent outside when the air cools.

Dates underpin everything: dozens of varieties grow in the Touat, Gourara and Saoura, eaten with milk or buttermilk, pressed into paste and cooked into sweets. Couscous is served with vegetables grown in the oasis gardens, and bread is baked in rounds or flat loaves.

Around Béchar, mutton and camel are the main meats, stewed or grilled. In the oases, simple dishes of lentils, beans and dried vegetables are cooked for everyday meals, and chorba starts every evening in Ramadan.

Sahrawi and nomadic households around Tindouf eat camel meat and drink camel milk, and cook rice or couscous for guests. Tea is the constant: green tea boiled with sugar and mint, poured from a height to raise foam, and served in three rounds. Visitors to the oases are welcomed with dates and a glass of milk or tea before anything else happens.

The Touat and Gourara oases of Adrar and Timimoun are the heart of the southwest. Timimoun's red walls and colonial buildings in a neo-Sudanese style look over a salt lake, the Sebkha, and circuits from the town visit the ksour of the Gourara and the foggaras that feed them. South of Timimoun, the Touat oases around Adrar include Tamentit and many other ksour along the palm belt.

In the north, Béchar is the gateway to the Saoura valley. The dunes of the Grand Erg Occidental rise over its ksar and palm grove, with rock engravings in the valley nearby. Béni Abbès stands above the Saoura river and its palm grove, and Kenadsa has its old ksar and zaouïa. Smaller oases such as Igli and Kerzaz lie along the valley road to Adrar.

The far Tindouf desert is a flat, stony hamada, rarely visited, where the refugee camps and the Gara Djebilet mine are the only landmarks; travel here is restricted. Bordj Badji Mokhtar, deep in the desert towards Mali, is not a destination for travellers.