# el Gaada

**El Gaada** (also written el Gaâda, El Gada, or El Gâda, from Arabic *gaʿda*, a plateau or flat upland) is the name of several places in the Maghreb, most prominently a commune in the Mascara Province of Algeria and a Roman-era site near [Volubilis](https://www.edgepedia.org/volubilis) in Morocco. The same toponym also designates a region of [Western Sahara](https://www.edgepedia.org/western-sahara), a pastoral zone in the Djebel Amour of Algeria, and archaeological localities in Tunisia.

| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Moroccan ancient site | A Roman-era fort west of ancient Volubilis, in the modern Moroccan municipality of el Gaada<sup>[1](https://atlantides.org/changelogs/2025/02/)</sup> |
| Reinterpreted monument | The "fort" was shown by M. Lenoir in 1980 to have no trace of a camp; a watchtower identification was proposed by the Mission du Sebou in 1985<sup>[2](https://iris.uniss.it/retrieve/e1dc1a2d-0132-1507-e053-3a05fe0ac7a3/Mastino_A_AttiCongresso_1987_Africa_T1.pdf)</sup> |
| Other namesakes | A region of Western Sahara at 26°3′N 14°2′W<sup>[3](https://www.geonames.org/advanced-search.html?country=EH)</sup>; a pastoral zone in the Djebel Amour, Algeria<sup>[4](https://www.algerie-dz.com/forums/culture/492545-alg%C3%A9rie-%C3%A0-la-recherche-du-myst%C3%A9rieux-b%C3%A9lier-%C3%A0-disque-du-djebel-amour)</sup> |

## El Gaada, Algeria

The commune of El Gaada lies in the [Mascara Province](https://www.edgepedia.org/mascara-province) of western Algeria, with the village of Ain Affeurd as its administrative center.

**Population and history.** An anthropological study conducted between 2010 and 2014 describes El Gaada as a geographic site on the Tellian plateau at an altitude of 580 meters, 40 km southeast of Oran, and notes that the commune belonged to Saint-Lucien (now Zahana) until 1957<sup>[5](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9782336356808_A49336735/preview-9782336356808_A49336735.pdf)</sup>.

The commune holds places associated with the Algerian War of Independence.

A gazetteer of world place names lists several other populated places called El Gaada in Morocco and Algeria, including one in the Mascara region of Algeria at 35.20°N, 0.43°E, elevation 4,189 feet, with an estimated population of 9,089<sup>[6](https://www.fallingrain.com/world/a/E/l/32/G/a/a/index.html)</sup>. A separate Djebel el Gaada, a group of rounded hills with local relief under 300 m, lies in the Aïn Témouchent Province of Algeria at 35°34′15″N 1°5′10″W<sup>[7](https://www.mindat.org/feature-2496194.html)</sup>.

## el Gaada, Morocco (ancient site)

The Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places records an entry for el Gaada as a Roman-era fort located west of ancient Volubilis, in the modern Moroccan municipality of el Gaada<sup>[1](https://atlantides.org/changelogs/2025/02/)</sup>. The identification of the monument has a documented scholarly history. The French archaeologist René Rebuffat recounts that J. Baradez identified the site as a Roman camp, an identification adopted by M. Euzennat, who made the camp an essential element of the defensive grid of the Volubilis region<sup>[2](https://iris.uniss.it/retrieve/e1dc1a2d-0132-1507-e053-3a05fe0ac7a3/Mastino_A_AttiCongresso_1987_Africa_T1.pdf)</sup>.

**Reassessment.** As M. Lenoir demonstrated in a 1980 memoir, there is no trace of a camp on a site that does not lend itself to one<sup>[2](https://iris.uniss.it/retrieve/e1dc1a2d-0132-1507-e053-3a05fe0ac7a3/Mastino_A_AttiCongresso_1987_Africa_T1.pdf)</sup>. The watchtower hypothesis, advanced tentatively by Lenoir, was consolidated by the research of the Mission du Sebou and proposed in a communication of April 1985, and Euzennat subsequently placed the watchtower on the spur of the Gaada<sup>[2](https://iris.uniss.it/retrieve/e1dc1a2d-0132-1507-e053-3a05fe0ac7a3/Mastino_A_AttiCongresso_1987_Africa_T1.pdf)</sup>. The spur itself is barred by a vallum that cannot yet be dated; none of the abundant ceramic and amphora sherds recorded on the site has a serious chance of being earlier than about 40 CE, which casts doubt even on Euzennat's suggestion that the work was pre-Roman<sup>[2](https://iris.uniss.it/retrieve/e1dc1a2d-0132-1507-e053-3a05fe0ac7a3/Mastino_A_AttiCongresso_1987_Africa_T1.pdf)</sup>.

## Other places named El Gaada

**Western Sahara.** GeoNames records El Gaada (also Gaada) as a region of Western Sahara centered at 26°3′N, 14°2′W<sup>[3](https://www.geonames.org/advanced-search.html?country=EH)</sup>. A Spanish military account of the territory describes a route crossing the meseta del Gaada between Tarfaya and Tan-Tan, and a 1943 expedition by the prehistorian Julio Martínez Santa-Olalla listed the slope of El Gaada among the notable prehistoric vestiges of the [Spanish Sahara](https://www.edgepedia.org/spanish-sahara), alongside [Lower Paleolithic](https://www.edgepedia.org/lower-paleolithic) finds at Aguerguer and terraces of Saguia el-Hamra<sup>[8](https://ejercito.defensa.gob.es/ca/Galerias/multimedia/revista-ejercito/2018/932/accesible/Revista_Ejercito_Accesible.pdf)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[9](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Margarita-Diaz-Andreu/publication/312147068_History_of_Archaeology_-_international_perspectives/links/58aada37aca27206d9ba33e2/History-of-Archaeology-international-perspectives.pdf?origin=scientificContributions)</sup>.

**Djebel Amour, Algeria.** In the Laghouat region of the [Saharan Atlas](https://www.edgepedia.org/saharan-atlas), El Gaada is a pastoral zone at the heart of the Djebel Amour, near the rock engravings of Fedjet el Kheil; a nineteenth-century lion record also lists Gaada (Djebel Amour) as a refuge place for lions before 1845<sup>[4](https://www.algerie-dz.com/forums/culture/492545-alg%C3%A9rie-%C3%A0-la-recherche-du-myst%C3%A9rieux-b%C3%A9lier-%C3%A0-disque-du-djebel-amour)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[10](https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4232/c46d954255db95aae095f8cdc8a93a3174b1.pdf)</sup>.

**Tunisia.** The name appears at two archaeological localities. Near Tébourba, the locality known today as Rakehet Dir el Gaâda (also called el M'laâb, the stadiums) is the site of a previously unrecorded protohistoric necropolis discovered in January 2021 by the archaeologist Monia Adili during a survey near Aïn Guerchba; it comprises about thirty funerary structures in five architectural categories: a single rock-cut hanout, bazinas, dolmens, burial enclosures, and an isolated cave cut into a small rocky mound<sup>[11](https://al-sabil.tn/2026/07/30/fr-monia-adili-note-preliminaire-sur-une-necropole-protohistorique-inconnue-dans-la-region-ded-dekhila-tebourba-tunisie/)</sup>. A preliminary note by Habib Ben Younès also treats El Gaada as a peripheral site of the city of Thapsus (Ras Dimas) in the pre-Roman period<sup>[12](https://www.inp2020.tn/periodiques/reppal/reppal12.pdf)</sup>.

## References

1. [Pleiades Gazetteer Change Log, February 2025](https://atlantides.org/changelogs/2025/02/)
2. [René Rebuffat, in Atti del Congresso, Africa (1987), via Università di Sassari](https://iris.uniss.it/retrieve/e1dc1a2d-0132-1507-e053-3a05fe0ac7a3/Mastino_A_AttiCongresso_1987_Africa_T1.pdf)
3. [GeoNames advanced search, Western Sahara](https://www.geonames.org/advanced-search.html?country=EH)
4. [Algérie: à la recherche du mystérieux bélier à disque du Djebel Amour, Algerie-dz.com](https://www.algerie-dz.com/forums/culture/492545-alg%C3%A9rie-%C3%A0-la-recherche-du-myst%C3%A9rieux-b%C3%A9lier-%C3%A0-disque-du-djebel-amour)
5. [Mokhtar Lakehal, anthropological study of El Gaada and the Mhadja](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9782336356808_A49336735/preview-9782336356808_A49336735.pdf)
6. [Alphabetical listing of places starting with El Gaa, Falling Rain](https://www.fallingrain.com/world/a/E/l/32/G/a/a/index.html)
7. [Djebel el Gaada, Wilaya de Aïn Temouchent, Mindat.org](https://www.mindat.org/feature-2496194.html)
8. [Revista Ejército, 932 (2018), Spanish Ministry of Defense](https://ejercito.defensa.gob.es/ca/Galerias/multimedia/revista-ejercito/2018/932/accesible/Revista_Ejercito_Accesible.pdf)
9. [History of Archaeology: International Perspectives (Díaz-Andreu), ResearchGate](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Margarita-Diaz-Andreu/publication/312147068_History_of_Archaeology_-_international_perspectives/links/58aada37aca27206d9ba33e2/History-of-Archaeology-international-perspectives.pdf?origin=scientificContributions)
10. [History of the lion in North Africa, PLOS ONE](https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4232/c46d954255db95aae095f8cdc8a93a3174b1.pdf)
11. [Monia Adili, Note préliminaire sur une nécropole protohistorique inconnue dans la région d'ed Dekhila (Tébourba, Tunisie), Al Sabîl](https://al-sabil.tn/2026/07/30/fr-monia-adili-note-preliminaire-sur-une-necropole-protohistorique-inconnue-dans-la-region-ded-dekhila-tebourba-tunisie/)
12. [Habib Ben Younès, El Gaada site périphérique de la Ville de Thapsus, Reppal XII](https://www.inp2020.tn/periodiques/reppal/reppal12.pdf)

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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Places and geography › Parks, protected areas, and geographic heritage sites › Site registers and reference › Middle Eastern and North African sites*

*Initially written Oct 20, 2026 · Edited: Oct 25, 2026*

*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*

License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license