Ain el-Turck (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: عين الترك ) (literally "Fountain of the Turks") is the capital of Ain el-Turck District located about fifteen kilometers from

Oran Oran () is a major coastal city located in the northwest of Algeria. It is considered the second most important city of Algeria, after the capital, Algiers, because of its population and commercial, industrial and cultural importance. It is w ...

in the north-west of

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

. The district contains nine municipalities. It now host an important seaside resort. It also gives its name to one of the beaches in the region of Oran.

History

Centuries ago, Ain el Turk was a plain called El Eurfa which extends from ''St Roch'' till ''Les Andalouses''. Over the centuries, the population of El Eurfa plain (known later as Ain el Turck) has significantly increased. Two types of people lived there and cohabited,

nomadic Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...

people who practice

transhumance Transhumance is a type of pastoralism or Nomad, nomadism, a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions (''vertical transhumance''), it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and low ...

, and

sedentary Sedentary lifestyle is a lifestyle type, in which one is physically inactive and does little or no physical movement and/or exercise. A person living a sedentary lifestyle is often sitting or lying down while engaged in an activity like soc ...

or sedentarized tribes who practiced agriculture and

beekeeping Beekeeping (or apiculture, from ) is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in artificial beehives. Honey bees in the genus '' Apis'' are the most commonly kept species but other honey producing bees such as '' Melipona'' stingless bees are ...

. The nomads wandered between the plains of E''l Eurfa, Boutlelis'' and ''Messreghinn'', except in some special cases they did not go beyond the

Sabkha A sabkha () is a predominately coastal, supratidal mudflat or sandflat in which evaporite-saline minerals accumulate as the result of a semiarid to arid climate. Sabkhas are gradational between land and intertidal zone within restricted coast ...

in the South and the forest Madagh in the West. They lived together and traded with each other. These sedentary people sold their products at

Mers el-Kebir Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is a viral respiratory infection caused by ''Middle East respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus'' (MERS-CoV). Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe depending on age and risk level. Typica ...

and

, they also sold their products to nomadic tribes, but most of the time they swapped their products with sheep as they supply them with meat and wool.

General Aspect of the city in 1831

Seaway and Roads

In 1831, the area where the village would be built was a kind of a

cul-de-sac A dead end, also known as a ''cul-de-sac'' (; , ), a no-through road or a no-exit road, is a street with only one combined inlet and outlet. Dead ends are added to roads in urban planning designs to limit traffic in residential areas. Some d ...

from the only major road, which was rather a road that connected les Andalouse and Mers-el-Kebir and Oran via Bousfer called "''la Route des Crêtes''" which was very rocky and took new directions at Ain Khadija (later, the road was named 'Ploteau road'), joining Ain el Turck at the small village ''Naqous'', so named in Arabic because of the bells of the first church in the area "St. Anthony of Padua" (the word 'Naqous' means bell, in Arabic). However, there were many other ways relied the village to St Roch, Cape Falcon, Coralès, to Les-Andalouses, the Daya and Bousfer. Seaway has been used to link the city with Oran and Mers-el-Kebir, as there were links between these 2 cities when not at war, we know only that Turkish troops used the sea when coming to pick up the taxes

Water Sources

There was in the plain of what will become Ain el Turck at least eight sources of water: * The two sources of Ain Ouzel and Cape Falcon * Ain Ouansar near the farm Emeral * Source of St Maurice * Ain el Turck * Ain Atrouss (farm Clairefontaine-Navarre) * Bally source (barranco Bouisseville) * St Rock source

Ecology

Apart from some woods and groves located down the hills, vegetation was predominantly dwarf palms (Duma), Alfa tufts, some diss, lentisk (especially at the dunes), juniper, thorns, herbs, agave, Reeds and a multitude of flowers and plants which were used as forage. Forest trees especially pine and cedar are common south of the village down the mountain. Indigenous people cultivated fruit trees such as almond, fig, the Jujubie, and vine also But the most widespread plant was the pear used as a hedge of protection that had the triple advantage * Requires no maintenance * Provide fruit * Ensure effective protection of the house or the pen One could find edible plants as a type of wild green asparagus, beautiful sea that was called "the wild white beans", chestnuts, the fennel, chicory, watercress. There are also many mushrooms but they are not consumed (according to botanists, we could count on more than 30 species of which at least a dozen were edible) Flowers were particularly numerous. Hawthorn and the arbutus, the aloe el the Asphodèles. The gladioli. Blueberries, worries, the bolts of gold, tulips and daisies wild vinaigrette, Lesjacinihes wild, the ephemeral poppy, lavender, And the first indigenous families in Ain el Turck (the Touil, Bouchiba, Ali arbi. Boukhatem and Belazrag in trouville..)

Climate

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ain El Turk Communes of Oran Province