Touggourt, Algeria

Touggourt, also called Tuggurt, is a city in southern Algeria, built around an oasis in the Sahara. It is notable for its date trees. It was formerly surrounded by a moat, which the French filled up. The surrounding oasis is very fertile. From Touggourt a road 7 miles long leads across the desert north-east to El Wad. 12 miles to the southwest is the oasis and town of Temacin. After a century of rule by France, and in the wake of 1948 elections rigged by French colonists to reverse the sweeping victory of a Muslim political party in 1947, Algerians fought through the 1950s to achieve independence in 1962. Algeria's primary poli.