Location

Saïda is located in northwestern Algeria, on the southern slopes of the Tell Atlas

Tell Atlas

The Tell Atlas is a mountain chain over 1,500 kilometers in length, belonging to the Atlas mountain ranges in North Africa, stretching from Morocco, through Algeria to Tunisia. It parallels the Mediterranean coast...

 mountain range situated on the northern fringe of the High Plateaus (French = Hauts Plateaux). The city lies along the right bank of the Wadi Saïda, protected by wooded mountains on the opposite shore that rise steeply from the valley floor to an elevation of some 4,000 feet (1,200 metres).

History

The city’s site has been of military importance since the construction of a Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 fort. Saïda was a stronghold of Abd al-Qadir, the Algerian national leader who burned the town as French forces approached it in 1844.

Modern Saïda was founded as a French military outpost in 1854 and once housed a regiment of the French Foreign Legion

French Foreign Legion

The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...

. Its growth was stimulated by the arrival of the Oran

Oran

Oran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country.It is the capital of the Oran Province . The city has a population of 759,645 , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000, making it the second largest...

-Béchar

Béchar

Béchar , formerly known as Colomb-Béchar, is a capital city of Béchar Province, Algeria. The area is controlled by Algeria, though claims have also been made on it by Morocco. In 1998 the city had a population of 134,954....

 [narrow-gauge) railway, which was incorporated in 1862.

In 2005 the population was 158,856 inhabitants. It is nicknamed the city of waters, because of its abundant underground springs.

Transport

Saïda is served by a narrow gauge

Narrow gauge

A narrow gauge railway is a railway that has a track gauge narrower than the of standard gauge railways. Most existing narrow gauge railways have gauges of between and .- Overview :...

 railway from Mohammadi

Mohammadi

Mohammadi is a city and a municipal board in Lakhimpur Kheri district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.-Demographics: India census, Mohammadi had a population of 38,427. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Mohammadi has an average literacy rate of 48%, lower than the...

, however a standard gauge

Standard gauge

The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...

line is proposed.