Located at the foot of the Atlas Mountains, Blida, which means "small city", benefits from a pure air and a quality environment. Protected from the dry winds of the south by the foothills of the Atlas, the city enjoys a climate and a hydrography conducive to the cultivation of cereals, flowers, fruits and vegetables, which have made the wealth of the region. But it is especially its position on the natural road which sinks of the alluvial plain of Mitidja towards the south which allowed him to develop.The city was founded in 1553 by Ahmed el-Kebir and then developed by Kheir ed-Dine Barberousse for Muslims from Andalusia who settled there, importing the cultivation of fruit trees, especially orange trees, and their know-how in irrigation. The city, then surrounded by rosebushes, was nicknamed Ourdia, "the little rose". The janissaries and the rich raïs took advantage of the abundance of this city near their capital to make it a city of pleasures that they nicknamed "the prostitute". The French finally occupied Blida in 1839, fourteen years after the terrible earthquake that destroyed the city and caused the death of more than half of its inhabitants. The city was raised from its ruins according to a modern plan of streets with right angles, with low buildings in order to mitigate the effect of possible new shocks. Blida then became a flourishing agribusiness center and one of the first military bases in North Africa.The time when the city, surrounded by rosebushes, organized each spring the battle of the flowers seems to be over but Blida remains a very pleasant city, shaded by ficus and orange trees, where it is good to walk and shop, despite the painful memories of a recent history that made it one of the peaks of the "triangle of death" during the black decade.

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Jardin public de Blida. Saliha HADJ-DJILANI
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