Taghit ( ar, ﺗﺎﻏﻴﺖ) is a town and

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in Taghit District,

Béchar Province Béchar ( ar, ولاية بشار) is the second least-densely populated province (''wilaya'') in Algeria, named after its capital Béchar. History The greater part of the province is dry plains (hamadas) suitable for grazing but with insuffic ...

, in western

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

. The town is an

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

watered by the underground

Oued Zousfana Oued Zouzfana is an intermittent river, or wadi, that flows through the Oriental region in southeastern Morocco and Béchar Province

, which runs along beside the dunes of the

Grand Erg Occidental The Grand Erg Occidental ( ar, العرق الغربي الكبير, al-ʿIrq al-Gharbī al-Kabīr), (also known as the Western Sand Sea) is the second largest erg in northern Algeria after the Grand Erg Oriental. It covers an area of approximatel ...

. According to the 2008 census its population is 6,317, up from 6,047 in 1998, with an annual growth rate of 0.4%. The commune covers an area of .

History

The town was the site of the

Battle of Taghit The Battle of Taghit was the siege of a fort held by a contingent of the French Army of Africa against Moroccan tribesmen during the South-Oranese Campaign. Background In the 1890s, the French administration and military called for the annexati ...

in 1903, in which 4000

Zayanes Zayanes ( ber, Azayi (singular), (plural); ) are a Berber population inhabiting the Khenifra region, located in the central Middle Atlas mountains of Morocco. Zayanes tribes are known for their attachment to ancestral land and for their tenac ...

Berbers , image = File:Berber_flag.svg , caption = The Berber ethnic flag , population = 36 million , region1 = Morocco , pop1 = 14 million to 18 million , region2 = Algeria , pop2 ...

besieged the French in the town, whom they outnumbered by 10 to 1. The attackers were later forced to retreat. Marabutto-Taghirt

Geography

Taghit lies on the left (eastern) bank of the

Oued Zouzfana Oued Zouzfana is an intermittent river, or wadi, that flows through the Oriental region in southeastern Morocco and Béchar Province

. The

, a large area of continuous

sand dunes A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...

, lies to the east, while the rocky Djebel Baroun lies to the west across the river.

Climate

Taghit has a hot

desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''BWh''), with extremely hot summers and cool winters, and very little precipitation throughout the year.

Economy

Agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

is an important industry in Taghit. The commune has a total of of

arable land Arable land (from the la, arabilis, "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the ...

, of which is

irrigated Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...

. There are a total of 137,450

date palms ''Phoenix dactylifera'', commonly known as date or date palm, is a flowering plant species in the palm family, Arecaceae, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit called dates. The species is widely cultivated across northern Africa, the Middle Eas ...

planted in the commune. As of 2009 there were 3,330

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

, 2,995

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

s, 2,481

camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...

s, and 62

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

. There were also 24,000

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

s in 2 buildings.

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

is also significant in Taghit due to many

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

rock engraving A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock (geology), rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrasion (geology), abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", ...

s in the area. Other attractions include sand dunes, palm groves, the old

ksar Ksar or qsar (Maghrebi Arabic: wiktionary:قصر, قصر ''qṣer'' or ڭصر ''gser'', plural ''qṣur''; Berber language, Berber: ⵉⴴⵔⵎ ''aghrem'' or ''ighrem'', plural: ''igherman''), plural ksars, qsars, ksour or qsour, is the Nor ...

and the zawiya. There is one hotel in Taghit, the three-star ''Taghit''.

Infrastructure and housing

90% of Taghits's population are connected to drinking water, 96% are connected to the sewerage system, and 93% (including 1,485 buildings) have access to electricity. There is one fuel service station in the town. Taghit has a total of 1,551 houses, of which 913 are occupied, giving an occupation rate of 6.9 inhabitants per occupied building.

Transportation

There are three main roads out of Taghit: one leads northwest to the N6 highway ( Bechar-

Adrar Adrar (in Tifinagh script "ⴰⴷⵔⴰⵔ"), a Berber word meaning "mountain", is the name of several areas in Northwest Africa: Algeria * Adrar, Algeria, a town in Algeria * Adrar Province, an administrative division of Algeria * Adrar District, ...

section) just south of Bechar, another leads southwest through Igli to the N6 further south, and the third leads northeast, also to the N6 ( Bechar- Mecheria section) northeast of Bechar, near

Figuig Figuig or Figig ( ar, فجيج; Figuig Berber: Ifeyyey) is an oasis town in eastern Morocco near the Atlas Mountains, on the border with Algeria. The town is built around an oasis of date palms, called ''Tazdayt'', meaning "palm tree" in the B ...

. A number of small localities lie along the Oued Zouzfana to the south; these are connected by a local road. Taghit is from the provincial capital,

Béchar Béchar ( ar, بشار) is the capital city of Béchar Province, Algeria. It is also a commune, coextensive with Béchar District, of Béchar Province. In 2008 the city had a population of 165,627, up from 134,954 in 1998, with an annual growth ...

. There is a total length of of roads in the commune.

Education

There are 5 elementary schools, with 39 classrooms including 30 in use. There are a total of 1,310 school students. 5.9% of the population has a tertiary education, and another 18.4% has competed secondary education. The overall literacy rate is 81.4%, and is 86.6% among males and 76.7% among females.

Health

Taghit has 4 room care facilities, and a private pharmacy, and a medical operating theatre. The nearest hospital (by road) is in

Religion

Taghit has six operational

mosques A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, i ...

, with another under construction.

Localities

The commune is composed of five localities: *Taghit * Zaouia Fougania *

Berrabi Bakhti Berrabi Bakhti is a village in the Communes of Algeria, commune of Taghit, in Taghit District, Béchar Province, Algeria. The village is located on the eastern side of the Oued Zouzfana south of Taghit, on the western edge of the Grand Erg Occide ...

*Zaouia Tahtania *Brika

References

External links

Neighbouring towns and cities

{{Authority control Communes of Béchar Province