Messaâd

Messaâd lies among the Ouled Naïl mountains on the southern edge of the Atlas. Nearby, a Roman fort known as Castellum Dimmidi once guarded a corridor between the Laghouat country and the Hodna. Built around the end of the second century, it stood on a sandstone height overlooking the Oued Djedi and the Oued Messaâd. Its position made it an outpost at the edge of the desert, where roads and river valleys crossed the mountain country.