Miliana

Miliana, town, northwestern Algeria. Miliana is located in the northern Tell Atlas Mountains about 100 miles (160 km) southwest of Algiers. It lies on the wooded southern flank of Mount Zaccar Rherbi and overlooks the Chelif River valley to the east and south and the Zaccar plateau to the west. Miliana was founded in the 10th century by Yūsuf Buluggin I ibn Zīrī, of the Zīrid dynasty, on the site of the former Roman town of Zucchabar (Succhabar). While under the control of Abdelkader, the Algerian national leader, it was burned (1840) in the face of the French forces, which gained control of the area in 1842 and rebuilt the town in the French colonial style.

Miliana is enclosed by walls built on Berber (Amazigh) and Turkish foundations. The centre of the tree-shaded modern sector is the Place Cornot (or Place de l’Horloge) with its clock tower, formerly a minaret. The older Arab quarter to the northwest contains a covered marketplace and the Moorish-style mosque of Sidi Ahmed ben Yousef, object of a biannual pilgrimage. Below the town are orchards, vineyards, and gardens. The ample water supply from the neighbouring—often snowcapped—mountains furnishes electric power for flour mills, tile factories, and other light industries. Pop. (2008) 43,366.