Town, largest of the Souf Oases in northeastern Algeria. It lies 50 miles (80 km) west of the Tunisian border. Surrounded by the sand dunes of the Grand Erg (sand dunes) Oriental, the Souf Oases extend for 40 km (25 miles) northwest to southeast. A oued (river) once flowed to the east, but it was swallowed by the encroaching sands. The town sits in the midst of the oasis and has narrow, winding streets, with cube-shaped buildings of clay-stone topped by cupolas. The houses are clustered, creating the image of a "Town of a Thousand Domes," so-called by the French writer-adventuress Isabella Eberhardt (1877-1904). The town's fortress mosque and use of arcades and arches reflect both Moorish and Roman influence. Date-palm groves are grown in man-made, funnel-shaped craters that are protected from the sand by woven palm walls and are close enough to groundwater to eliminate irrigation.

A busy caravan centre, el-Oued exports high-quality dates and is known for its carpets and woven cloth. Its Museum of the Souf contains regional exhibits.

Pleasure of senses. In the heart of the golden, fair or green sea of sand. El-Oued is an island with spicy perfumes. The eye is struck with admiration before so many round forms and the oceanic undulation of sandhills. In El-Oued and Guemar market places, the smell of tobacco blend with those of leather, wool, fruit and vegetebales. Which poet has had that felicitous inspiration to give Oued R'hir's delectable dates the name "Deglet En Nour": "Light Fingers"? How could one better define this oblong, ambercoloured and transparent fruit? Fingers that one sucks with the same greedy pleasure of a kid smeared with jam. In the souf funnels, each palm tree plantation, each garden, greedily draws its life and its colour from a shallow underground water. A green profusion that man's endless work protects from the invasion of sand by building fences made of palms and dry stones walls. Gardeners' minute art, crafstmen's secular skill and trades men's know-how who offer you "haiks" made of silk or wool in Kouinine and carpets in Guemar. On the ocean of sandhills, El-Oued and the Souf Villages are civilization archipelago.

Population : (estimated) 95.000