S�tif

Also called �Stif, � town, northeastern Algeria, near the Wadi Bou Sellam. As ancient Sitifis, it became important when the Roman emperor Nerva established a veterans' colony there in AD 97. Sitifis became the chief town of the province of Mauretania Sitifensis (created AD 297) and remained so under Byzantine rule. The town declined until garrisoned by the French in 1838. In 1945 the S�tif town area was the site