Ait Ben Haddou
| Ait Ben Haddou | |||||
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| Basic data | |||||
| State : |
 Morocco
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| Region : | Drâa-Tafilalet | ||||
| Province : | Ouarzazate | ||||
| Coordinates | 31 ° 3 ′ N , 7 ° 8 ′ W | ||||
| Residents : | 2,500 | ||||
| Height : | 1300 m | ||||
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Aït-Ben-Haddou ( Arabic آيت بن حدّو, Central Atlas Tamazight ⴰⵢⵜ ⵃⴰⴷⴷⵓ Ayt Ḥaddu ; often spelled Aït Benhaddou ) is a fortified city ( ksar ) at the foot of the High Atlas in southeastern Morocco . The entire old town center has been recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site since 1987 .
location
The place, which consists of an old and a new part, is located almost 200 km (driving distance) southeast of Marrakech or about 30 km northwest of the city of Ouarzazate on a mountain slope at an altitude of about 1270 to 1320 m on the banks of the only in winter and spring water-bearing Asif Mellah . A 45 km long road (P1506) through the Ounila Valley via Tamdakht and Anemiter to Telouet has now been completed. Date palms still grow
on the banks of the Asif Mellah , which, due to the cool altitude, produce little fruit, but their fibrous trunks played an important role in earlier times in the construction of the ceilings and stairways (sometimes ramps) in the residential castles ( tighremts ); mats, baskets, ropes and the like were also made from the palm fronds. braided.
population
The two districts are mainly inhabited by Berbers of the Ben Haddou tribe, but many residents also speak Arabic and French because of the numerous local and European tourists .
economy
Until well into the 20th century, the residents lived on a self-sufficient basis from agriculture, which also included a little cattle breeding (sheep, goats, chickens). A new district was built around the 1960s, in which most of the people now live and which provides the necessary infrastructure (hotels, guest houses, restaurants, etc.) for the steadily growing number of day tourists.
history
The site was the main town of the Ben Haddou clan ( Aït ) . At the time of the Almoravids in the 11th century, they controlled the trade on the old caravan route between Timbuktu and Marrakech at Asif Mellah . The Ksar, which is mostly made of rammed earth and - in southern Morocco, rather rare air-dried - adobe bricks is likely to be more recent - the information varies depending on the literature from the 12th to the 16th century. No precise information can be given about the number of residents either, but it is said that up to 1000 people lived in Aït Benhaddou for a while.
architecture
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The old village consists of several residential castles ( Tighremts ) built close to one another and partly nested within one another . Their clay walls rest on natural rock and have a base zone of larger or smaller boulders. The buildings with their corner towers and battlements give the place its defensive appearance, which is reinforced by the hillside location. Most of the corner towers were decorated with geometric motifs in the upper area, whereby the recurring diamond motifs can be interpreted as abstract eyes and originally probably had an apotropaic (disaster-warding) function.
The originally completely windowless Tighremts by Ait Benhaddou are all built around inner courtyards, through which light and air could get into the stables and storage rooms on the ground floor as well as into the living rooms and bedrooms on the upper floors.
It is noticeable that the old ksar is not towered over by any minaret. In the villages inhabited by Berbers in the south of Morocco there were simple prayer rooms, but outside of the cities (Marrakech, Taroudannt, Tiznit) no minarets were built until the 20th century.
On the hilltop above the Ksar there is a fortress ( kasbah ) that was built in the 17th century to better control the population .
Current condition
In the past, decay and reconstruction were in balance, but the declining or non-existent rainfall with the resulting falling water level, the migration of young people to the cities, the weather and the additional burden of increasing tourist flows make the permanent existence the settlement in question. Against this background, the change from a village to an open-air museum seems irreversible. It is unclear how long the place will be at least partially inhabited - in view of the enormous maintenance effort for the adobe buildings. For the film Jesus of Nazareth , a large part of Ait-Ben-Haddou was restored in the late 1970s. Extensive renovation measures were also carried out between 2000 and 2015; In the process, parts of a town wall made of rammed earth, which was probably already in place, were renewed.
The old town center is now connected to the power grid; some of the families currently living in the new district allegedly want to relocate again.
meaning
Despite the streams of tourists and filmmakers from all over the world who keep coming back, Ait Benhaddou is one of the very few still reasonably well-preserved clay housing estates in southern Morocco. Aït-Ben-Haddou became known as a film set (e.g. Sodom and Gomorrah by Robert Aldrich or Gladiator by Ridley Scott ).
Film set
Aït-Ben-Haddou has served as the backdrop for over 20 Hollywood productions, including a .:
- Sodom and Gomorrah (1962)
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
- The Bible (film)
- The Man Who Wanted To Be King (1975)
- Jesus of Nazareth (1977)
- Chasing the Jewel of the Nile (1985)
- James Bond 007 the Living Daylights (1987)
- The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
- Desert Heaven (1990)
- Kundun (1997)
- The Mummy (1999)
- Gladiator (2000)
- Alexander (2004)
- Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)
- Game of Thrones (2012)
See also
literature
- Herbert Popp: Aït Ben Haddou World Heritage Site (Morocco). Local marketing of a location of global interest . In: Geographische Rundschau 52 (6) 2001, pp. 44–49.
- M. Weiß: Aït Ben Haddou World Heritage Site (South Morocco) - international sightseeing tourism is changing a remote Berber village. The example of the local dealers. In: Herbert Popp (ed.): Local actors in tourism in the Maghreb countries . (Maghreb studies, no. 12), Passau 1999, pp. 115-145.
- Arnold Betten: Morocco. Antiquity, Berber Traditions and Islam - History, Art and Culture in the Maghreb. DuMont, Ostfildern 2012, pp. 257f, ISBN 978-3-7701-3935-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
Cultural heritage: Medina of Fez (1981) | Medina of Marrakech (1985) | Fortified city of Ait Ben Haddou (1987) | Medina of Meknes (1996) | Volubilis archaeological site (1997) | Medina of Tetouan (1997) | Essaouira Medina (Mogador) (2001) | Portuguese city of Mazagan (El Jadida) (2004) | Rabat - modern capital with a historical core (2012)