Timokten ( ar, ﺗﻤﻘﺘﻦ) (also spelled Timoktene, Timekten, or Tamekten) 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 ...

Aoulef District Aoulef District is a district of Adrar Province, Algeria. According to the 2008 census it has a population of 54,909. Communes The district is further divided into 4 communes: * Aoulef *Akabli *Timokten Timokten ( ar, ﺗﻤﻘﺘﻦ) (also s ...

Adrar Province Adrar ( ar, ولاية أدرار, ber, ⴰⴷⵔⴰⵔ) is a province (''wilaya'') in southwestern Algeria, named after its capital Adrar. It is the second-largest province, with an area of 424,948 km2, roughly the size of the US state o ...

, in south-central

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

. According to the 2008 census it has a population of 18,598, up from 14,134 in 1998, with an annual growth rate of 2.8%.

Geography

The town of Timokten lies at an elevation of on the western side of 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 ...

. Other settlements, such as Zaouiet Moulay Heïba, lie around the northern and eastern sides of this oasis. is a part of the Tidikelt region of the central Sahara that extends from central eastern Adrar Province (where Aoulef is located) to northeast

Tamanrasset Province Tamanrasset or Tamanghasset ( ar, ولاية تمنراست ''Wilāya Tamanrāssat'', Berber languages) is the largest province (''wilaya'') in Algeria. It was named after its province seat, Tamanrasset. The province has two national parks, more ...

around

In Salah In Salah or officially Aïn Salah ( ar, عين صالح) is the oasis town in central Algeria that is the capital of the In Salah Province and In Salah District. It was once an important trade link of the trans-Saharan caravan route. As of the 2 ...

. The oases in this region are sparser than in the

Tuat Tuat, or Touat, is a natural region of desert in central Algeria that contains a string of small oases. In the past, the oases were important for caravans crossing the Sahara. Geography Tuat lies to the south of the Grand Erg Occidental, to t ...

and

Gourara Tuat, or Touat, is a natural region of desert in central Algeria that contains a string of small oases. In the past, the oases were important for caravans crossing the Sahara. Geography Tuat lies to the south of the Grand Erg Occidental, to ...

regions in which most of the population of Adrar Province live, but there are still a number of towns such as

Aoulef Aoulef ( ar, أولف , translit=Awlaf) is a town and commune and capital of Aoulef District, in Adrar Province, south-central Algeria. According to the 2008 census it has a population of 21,723, up from 15,229 in 1998, with an annual growth rate ...

Akabli Akabli ( ar, أﻗﺒﻠﻰ) is a town and commune in Aoulef District, Adrar Province, in south-central Algeria. According to the 2008 census it has a population of 10,171, up from 7,513 in 1998, with an annual growth rate of 3.1%. Geography The ...

, Tit and

In Ghar In Ghar (Arabic: عين غار, lit. ''Cave spring'') is a town and commune, coextensive with the district of In Ghar, in In Salah Province, Algeria. According to the 2008 census it has a population of 11,225, up from 8,059 in 1998, with an annual ...

. The nearby land is mostly flat aside from some small hills to the east; however further north the land rises to the

Tademaït Tademaït is a natural region in the Sahara Desert right in the centre of Algeria. It is located north of In Salah and south of the Grand Erg Occidental in the Adrar District of Adrar Province, El Ménia District of Ghardaïa Province and the nor ...

plateau.

Climate

Timokten 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 mild winters, and very little

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

throughout the year.

Transportation

A provincial road connects Timokten to the

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

capital of

, which lies to the southeast on the N52 national highway, connecting it to

Reggane Reggane (from Berber "Argan"; ar, رقان) is a town and commune, and the capital of Reggane District, in Adrar Province, central Algeria. Reggane lies in the Sahara Desert near an oasis. According to the 2008 census it has a population of 20,40 ...

and eventually

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, ...

to the west and

to the east. The same provincial road also leads northwest to

, to the northwest.

Education

7.8% of the population has a tertiary education, and another 17.1% has completed secondary education. The overall literacy rate is 79.4%, and is 90.7% among males and 67.2% among females.

Localities

As of 1984, the commune was composed of 11 localities: *Iner * Zaouiet Moulay Heïba *Kasbet Sied *Kasbet Djena *Bled El Mehdi El Mansour *Ouled Moulay Rachid *Ezzouïa *El Merguieb *Gaougaou *Aoulef El Kébir *Akhannous *Ouled El Hadj *Bled Lahssiène *Aïn Belbal *Matriouan Timokten

References

Neighbouring towns and cities

{{Adrar Province Communes of Adrar Province