Agadir n'Gouf

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The mountain fortress ( kasbah ) known as Agadir n'Gouf is located on a hill in the west of the High Atlas Mountains near Ijoukak ( Al Haouz province , Marrakech-Safi region ), Morocco .

Etymological

The name Agadir is misleading, because the building is not, or only to a minor extent, a storage castle for storing food and equipment, but a fortress ( kasbah ) primarily serving military purposes .

history

The Agadir n'Gouf (photos → web links) was built in 1907 by members of the Berber tribe of the Goundafa , who controlled and ruled the region and the Tizi n'Test pass. Even after the beginning of the French protectorate, the tribe remained largely politically autonomous over Morocco , although a garrison of the Foreign Legion was quartered here in the 1920s . The building also served as a prison at times - for example, the Scottish politician and writer Robert Cunninghame Graham was temporarily detained here during his trip to Morocco.

architecture

The Agadir n'Gouf is a completely square building with a side length of about 25 m with four corner towers protruding from the wall lines, which, however, do not protrude over the sides. Such a straightforward and systematic architecture is rather unusual in the Maghreb and so European ideas are not unlikely in the overall conception. The individual rooms are located on the inner walls of the building, which is also grouped around a square courtyard - these served as accommodation as well as guard and storage rooms; A prayer room without minarets was also thought of.

See also

A comparable mountain fortress, also built by the Goundafa clan only a few years later, is the Kasbah of Tagoundaft , which is located about 10 km southwest on the R203 ( 30 ° 55 ′ 52 ″  N , 8 ° 15 ′ 31 ″  W ) the Souss plain towers. As temporally distant precursor in the 18th century under the is Alawites -Sultan Moulay Ismail built Kasbah of Boulaouane to look at.

literature

  • R. B Cunninghame Graham: Mogreb-El-Acksa. A Journey in Morocco. Long Riders' Guild Press, 2004. ISBN 1590481771

Web links

Coordinates: 30 ° 59 '15.6 "  N , 8 ° 11' 58.3"  W.