Bordered in the north by the Hautes Plaines, the Saharan Atlas is one of the vast plateaux of Africa, formed of ancient base rock covered by the sediment of shallow seas and alluvial deposits.

Among these are the Chelif and Touil wadis, riverbeds that contains water only during wet periods, respectively draining the Amour and Ouled-Naïl ranges of the Saharan Atlas.

[2] The Saharan Atlas Mountains mark the northern edge of the Sahara Desert.

The mountains see some rainfall and are better suited to agriculture than the plateau region to the north.

The mountains have also long been home to exiles expelled from the fertile coastal regions.