The Atlas Mountains are the principal mountain system of northwest Africa, arcing some two thousand five hundred kilometres from the Atlantic coast of southwestern Morocco to the Mediterranean cape of northeastern Tunisia. They form the geographical and symbolic spine of Tamazgha and shape its climate, its hydrology, and its political geography.
The system is conventionally divided into the Anti-Atlas in the south, the High Atlas across central Morocco, the Middle Atlas to its north, and the Saharan and Tellian Atlas of Algeria, with the Tunisian dorsal as their easternmost extension. The High Atlas reaches its summit at Toubkal, 4,167 metres, the highest peak in north Africa.
The ranges separate the temperate Mediterranean and Atlantic-facing slopes, where cedar, evergreen oak, and Atlas pine dominate, from the pre-Saharan and Saharan ranges to the south. They are the source of nearly every perennial river of the Maghreb, including the Oum er-Rbia, the Moulouya, the Sebou, and the Chelif.
The mountains have been continuously inhabited by Berber-speaking populations: the Chleuh of the western High Atlas and Anti-Atlas, the Aït Atta and Aït Hadiddou of the central High Atlas, the Beni Mguild and Aït Yusi of the Middle Atlas, the Kabyle of the Tellian Atlas, and the Chaoui of the Aurès. Each grouping retains a distinctive variety of Tamazight, a distinctive customary law (azref), and a distinctive material culture.
In Berber cosmology the mountains are the seat of memory, refuge, and resistance: the place where language, custom, and lineage have endured through successive Phoenician, Roman, Vandal, Byzantine, Arab, Ottoman, and European arrivals on the plains.