It occupies interior plateaus and mountain ranges of the Maghreb region, lying generally between the coastal Mediterranean woodlands and forests to the north and the Sahara to the south.

The main portion of the ecoregions extends from the southern slopes of the High Atlas in eastern Morocco across Algeria and Tunisia, where it meets the Mediterranean shore at the Gulf of Gabes.

[1] The human population of these regions is low, settled agriculture is only viable in valleys where there is a supply of water, such as dayas, depressions with good quality soil, and the beds of wadis.

Where sand accumulates there is a mosaic of vegetation types including patches of Thymeleae muicrophila, Aristida pungens, Retama retam, and of tamarisks Tamarix spp.

In depressions the vegetation includes a scrub consisting of the Mount Atlas mastic tree Pistacia atlantica, Ziziphus lotus, Asterichus graveolens and mallows Malva spp.