Ksar of Temacine

The city of Temacine is located 630 km southeast of Algiers. It is administratively attached to the wilaya of Ouargla, and is located approximately 20km from the town of Touggourt. This thousand-year-old city, whose creation dates back to around the year 782 of the Gregorian calendar, was founded by Righa families of the Berber tribe of Zenata, and was in the past a powerful kingdom. This kingdom was organized around a ksar located on a plateau 8 meters high and formed – a unique fact in the Sahara – of a thick layer of palm trunks, and which extends over an area of ​​12 hectares surrounded by a palm grove. Under the double effect of an absence of preservation policy, and despite the constant efforts made by the Zaouia Tidjania, spiritual, social and cultural authority of the region, the torrential rains which fell on the region in 1964, 1968, 1984, 1990 ended up destroying this unique heritage, and caused the collapse of the structures, transforming the ksar into an abandoned city. It was then that observation missions made it possible to work today on the rehabilitation of the ksar in order to develop it as well as the restoration of the palm grove. Today, the Temacine ksar is classified as a national heritage site.