The toponym of Tizi-Ouzou has been translated into French by Col des Genêts. It is, in fact, to the abundance of this thorny shrub, with yellow flowers, on the pass and its surroundings that the city owes its name.
The wilaya of Tizi-Ouzou occupies an area of 2,957.93 km² and has 1,190,176 inhabitants (2015). About a hundred kilometers east of Algiers, it is limited to the north by the Mediterranean, to the east by the wilaya of Bejaia, to the south by the wilaya of Bouira and to the west by the wilaya of Boumerdes, and it is administratively divided into 21 Daïras and 67 Communes.
Tizi-Ouzou is a region with tourist vocation, with its maritime frontage of 85 km, the richness and the diversity of the tourist potentialities which it conceals, lends itself admirably to any form of tourism (seaside, climatic, cultural and religious), its mountainous massif, its dense and luxuriant forests as well as its bewitching beaches enhanced by the existence of several archaeological sites make it a real tourist center and a very popular tourist destination.
Due to its geographical location and its tourist, economic, cultural and natural potentialities, Tizi-Ouzou is considered one of the most esteemed destinations in Algeria, it offers a picturesque image, which, by this advantage, man has made it a residence and a point of sedentarization since the earliest times, this is evidenced by the large number of archaeological sites and historical monuments marking the different periods; prehistoric, protohistoric, ancient, medieval and contemporary that the region has known on a permanent basis like other regions of the country.