Also called Wargla, large oasis town and administrative center, 560km (nearly 350 miles) south-east of Algiers, on the cross route that links the central and eastern trans-Saharan routes to the south on the western edge of a sebkha (large, enclosed basin) in the Sahara. One of the oldest settlements in the Sahara was made by the Ibadiyah, a Muslim heretical sect, at nearby Sedrata in the 10th century (ruins remain). In the 11th century they were attacked by Sunnite Muslims and fled to Ghardaïa, 118 miles (190 km) west-northwest. The Ouargla site was then settled by Berbers and black Africans. The town remained autonomous but for a brief period of Turkish control in the 16th century. The French gained possession in 1872, and the present town was built around Fort Lutaud to the south after 1928.

Ouargla is dominated by a large mosque and is walled with six gates. It has an arcaded marketplace and a Saharan museum. The town is surrounded by date palm groves and fruit and vegetable gardens irrigated by numerous wells, tapped from the underground Wadi Mya. There is a trade in livestock, woolen carpets, and basketry. It is also a pipeline junction in the middle of the Hassi-Messaoud oil region, and is being developed as an industrial area. The town also has an airport. Water from deep artesian wells has given the town a new lease of life over the past 30 years.

Population: (Estimated) 150.000