This study takes for its object the establishment of a benchmark for the long run development of the central Maghreb, beginning from medieval Arabic sources and drawing on modern European texts such as the examination of military archives and agricultural extension service reports from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Archaeological fieldwork conducted over recent years in the Tlemcen region has shed new light on the descriptions and contributed to enriching our understanding of agricultural development. Two themes stand out in the various texts examined: Water resources and their use, and the distribution of agriculture and animal husbandry practices across the territory. Discussion of the rural economy as divided between cultivated and mountainous zones completes our understanding of the western wealth of the central Maghreb. The cartography that results from such analyses highlights the continuities and breaks arising from the application of this wealth throughout the period studied.