Miliana

Miliana stands on a rocky shelf beneath Mount Zaccar, overlooking the Chelif valley. The Roman settlement of Zucchabar preceded the medieval town, rebuilt by Buluggin ibn Ziri in the tenth century. Its springs and channels watered gardens and orchards, while the wooded mountain rose behind the town. The shrine of Sidi Ahmed Benyoucef became a focus of local religious life and pilgrimage. Oruç Reis took Miliana in 1517, bringing it into the expanding Ottoman sphere. In 1835 Emir Abd al-Qadir made the town one of the centres of his resistance to French occupation.