Chlef (Arabic: الشلف‎) is the capital of Chlef Province, Algeria. It is home to the soccer club ASO Chlef, the Hassiba Ben Bouali university, and the basilica of Saint Reparatus, which is home to the oldest Christian labyrinth in the world.

The province of Chlef is located in the north of Algeria, 200 km west of the capital Algiers.

The site of the roman citadel, Castellum Tingitanum, was known as Al-Asnam (Arabic for "sculptures") on account of an area of 600 x 300 metres containg many statues.

Valley Chellif is from the 15th century the territory of the Ouled Kosseir who settled there under the leadership of El Kosseir Hamou (H'ammü'l-Quççayri) having displaced the indigenous Berber tribes. This tribe is a tribal Djouadi (military nobility). If they even call themselves descendants of the Beni Makhzum (Either Khaled Ibn El Walid). Some historians believe that it belongs to the Confederation of Ibn Suwayd Zoghba of beni Hillal and therefore cousins ​​of Mehal, other military nobility.

The Mehal have established, to the fifteenth century a kingdom that stretched from Méiliana in the east to Tlemcen in the west. The last King Abd El Hammou Mehal was that Barbarossa expelled Ténès, the seat of his kingdom, the arrival of the Janissaries.