Tebessa (Theveste) Algeria Road and rail junction situated near the Tunisian border, and the administrative capital of the district, which is an important phosphate-mining region. It is located 235km (146 miles) by road south of Annaba and 19km (12 miles) west of the Tunisian frontier. Tebessa manufactures some of the best carpets in Algeria.

Founded by the Romans in AD71, the town has some of the finest Roman remains in Africa, including a basilica, an arch and an enormous circus, amphitheatre, thermal baths, and a temple of Minerva. Then called Theveste, it was one of the first towns in Africa to adopt Christianity.

Tebessa was destroyed by Vandals in the 5th century AD, but restored by the Byzantines in the 6th century, and the modern city lies within Byzantine walls. Tébessa was an outpost of Carthage in the 7th century. The Turks stationed a small military garrison there, and, after French rule began in Algeria in 1830, Tébessa was developed as the easternmost of the Algerian gateways to the south. It was strategically important to the Allies in February 1943, when it was captured from the Germans and successfully defended against one of the last counter-thrusts in the North Africa campaign made by the German general Erwin Rommel (1891-1944).

Population : (estimated) 125.000