Agadir Guimst

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Agadir Guimst in the mountain landscape of the western Anti-Atlas, covered by stone rubble and thorny bushes
The roof of Agadir has partially collapsed; the former crenellated tower of Agadir, which is directly connected to the core structure, was plastered around 1900. In the background you can see the south side of the High Atlas , which was partly still covered by snow at the end of February .

The Agadir Guimst (sometimes Gmezt or Tguemst written) in the same small town is one of the Agadiren (memory castles) of Schlöh - Berbers in the west of the Moroccan Anti Atlas -Gebirges.

location

The small mountain village of Guimst is about 1 km east and about 200 m above the extremely winding road (R105) between Agadir and Tafraoute in this section of the route (about 25 km south of Ait Baha ) in the Souss-Massa region in southwestern Morocco. Agadir, in progressive decline, stands on the outskirts.

history

In the absence of written records, there is no reliable information about the age of the village ( douar ) or the warehouse castle. However, it can be assumed that the place was already settled in pre-Islamic times. The age of the - probably several times expanded - storage castle is likely to be around 200 to 300 years; whether there was a previous building is unclear.

architecture

Agadir Guimst - corridor with stepping stones
Agadir Guimst - detail

material

As with most of the Agadirs in the Anti-Atlas region, the entire structure, made of larger and smaller stones, which are lying around in large quantities in the area and which were extremely obstructive when working on the mostly terraced small fields, is technically perfect and without the use of mortar - just with some clay - put together. The lintels and ceiling branches of the storage chambers are mostly made of extremely durable argan wood.

Core construction

The two towers of the Speicherburg, formerly crowned with battlements, stand between the core structure and the surrounding wall, creating a kind of kennel . The actual access to the interior leads through a gate with the stone benches on the opposite side, which can be found in all Agadiren and which were mainly used for gatherings of the village elders. The individual storage chambers (there were around 60 in total) are located on both sides of a straight central aisle and are arranged on two floors and can be reached via stepping stones embedded in the masonry.

After the use of the Agadir finally ended in the middle of the 20th century, the building was left to decay - as a result of storms and heavy rain, large parts of the roofs collapsed, so that the false ceilings were also endangered.

Storage chambers

The approximately 1.50 m wide and about 6.50 to 7.50 m deep, but only about 1.60 m high storage chambers have ceilings or floors made of crooked argan wood with a cover made of reeds, clay and small stones. The chambers on the ground floor also have an approximately 20 cm high platform to protect against rising damp. On the outer wall at the rear there are mostly small light or ventilation openings, which, however, could also be used as loopholes in times of attacks.

The storage chambers were previously closed by carved or painted wooden doors secured with complex locks made of wood or metal. However, these have all disappeared and some ended up on the city's antique markets or in museums or - after the final abandonment of Agadir in the middle of the 20th century - were burned by the owners of the chambers.

See also

literature

  • D. Jacques-Meunié: Les greniers collectifs au Maroc. Paris 1944
  • D. Jacques-Meunié: Greniers-citadelles au Maroc. Paris 1951
  • Salima Naji: Greniers collectifs de l'Atlas. Paris 2006
  • Herbert Popp, Mohamed Ait Hamza, Brahim El Fasskaoui: Les agadirs de l'Anti-Atlas occidental. Atlas illustré d'un patrimoine culturel du Sud marocain. Natural Science Society, Bayreuth 2011 ISBN 978-3-939146-07-0

Web link

Coordinates: 29 ° 57 ′ 45.2 "  N , 9 ° 0 ′ 25.3"  W.