Saïda

Saïda lies at the threshold of the high plateaus south of Mascara, where a rocky site overlooks the valley of the Oued Saïda. A Roman fortified settlement once stood in the area. In the 1830s Emir Abd al-Qadir made Old Saïda one of the inland strongholds of his resistance to the French conquest. Its fortified enclosure held provisions and ammunition, and its position commanded routes towards Mascara, Tiaret and the country to the south.