Béchar

Béchar (Arabic: بشار‎) is the capital city of Béchar Province, Algeria. It is also a commune, coextensive with Béchar District, of Béchar Province. In 2008 the city had a population of 165,627, up from 134,954 in 1998, with an annual growth rate of 2.1%. The commune covers an area of 5,050 square kilometres (1,950 sq mi).

Before coal was found here in 1907, Béchar was a small populated town like many others in the region. It thrived on the activity of the coal mines until petroleum production seized the market.

Leatherwork and jewellery are notable products of Béchar. Dates, vegetables, figs, cereals and almonds are produced near Béchar. There are bituminous coal reserves near Béchar, but they are not exploited to their greatest potential because of transportation costs are too high relative to that from the oil and gas fields of eastern Algeria. The city was once the site of a French Foreign Legion post.

The Kenadsa longwave transmitter, whose masts are the tallest structures in Algeria at 357 metres (1,171 ft), is found near Béchar.

Béchar Province

Béchar (Arabic: ولاية بشار‎, Tifinagh: ⴱⴻⵛⴰⵔ) is a province (wilaya) in Algeria, named after its capital Béchar.

The greater part of the province is uninhabitable sand dune fields (ergs), in particular the Great Western Erg and the Erg Er Raoui, or dry plains (hamadas) suitable for grazing but with insufficient surface water to support agriculture. Most settlement is therefore concentrated in oases along the Saoura valley and its tributaries. An aquifer under the Erg Er Raoui supports the main exception, Tabelbala. Natural resources include coal deposits in the north around Bechar and Kenadsa and copper in the south in Djebel Ben Tagine.

The oases' traditional economic basis was agriculture, notably growing date palms and grain. The inhabitants of several oases, notably Igli, Ouakda, Lahmar and Boukais, speak Berber languages, while the rest speak Arabic; in one oasis, Tabelbala, a Songhay language, Korandje, continues to be spoken. Many of the oases had significant populations of haratin or shurfa. There are notable zaouias, traditional religious schools, at Kenadsa and Kerzaz. The region also supported a substantial mainly Arab pastoralist nomadic population, notably the Doui-Menia, Ouled Djerir, Ghenanma, Chaamba, and Reguibat; some of these still remain nomadic, but most have settled in the oases.