AKKA'S MINARET IN AGADIR AMGHAR, PROVINCE OF TATA | salima naji

Minaret and oratory of the site known as "Agadir Amghar", Kasbah Sidi Abdllah Ben Mbark, Akka palm grove. Archaeological excavation campaigns, architectural restoration and partial restitution, waterproofing of the building, 2012-2016. Preservation and archaeological excavations of the remains of the Agadir Amghar site.
Financing : Partnership Ministry of Culture of the Kingdom of Morocco, Directorate of Heritage, INSAP (National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage Sciences) & European Community: Italian Cooperation CISS.
Archaeologists: Prof. Mohamed Belatik, Prof. Abdellah Fili, Prof. Mustapha Atki, Prof. Ahmed Saleh Ettahiri, medieval researchers or specialists in religious heritage. Architect: Dc Salima Naji
Location of the project: Commune of Kasbah Sidi Abdllah Ben Mbark, Palmeraie d'Akka, Anti-Atlas. Province of Tata
Date of first excavation campaign: 2012
Date of second excavation campaign: 2014.
Date of completion of the work: February 2015.
This is the first time in Morocco that archaeologists work hand in hand with an architect to reorient the work according to the discoveries. The excavation and restoration of the "Lalla baytou Allah" mosque of Agadir Amghar (Commune of the kasbah of Sidi Abdellah ben Mbarek, province of Tata) began on 21 February 2012 as part of an international partnership, uniting the Directorate of Cultural Heritage (Ministry of Culture of the Kingdom of Morocco), the Commune of the kasbah of Sidi Abdellah ben Mbarek (Province of Tata, Souss Massa Draa Region) and the NGO CISS (Cooperazione Internazionale Sud-Sud).
This action is a continuation of the general inventory work carried out by the Moroccan Directorate of Cultural Heritage between 2003 and 2007 in the Province of Tata, on the one hand, and the programme "Preservation of oasis ecosystems in Morocco", supported by Italian cooperation (Italian NGO CISS established in Tata since 2007), on the other. This operational phase began with meticulous work to collect historical and archaeological data for a scientific analysis of the stratigraphic layers. The excavations are carried out by a team of four archaeologists: Pr. Mohamed BELATIK, archaeologist and head of the museums division, Mustapha ATKI, archaeologist and curator of the Volubilis site, Ahmed ETTAHIRI, professor of Islamic archaeology at the National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage Sciences, Rabat, and Pr. Abdallah FILI, professor of history and Islamic archaeology at the Chouaib Doukkali University of El-Jadida, and whose archaeological salvages of the sites of Aghmat and Igiliz (Price) are well known. They should reveal historical information of great importance for local, regional and national history. Akka is known as one of the political and religious centres of the Saadian dynasty, a few kilometres from the mining and caravanning city of Tamdoult, which organised the trans-Saharan trade in precious metals. At the same time, the architect Salima NAJI is supervising the restoration of the mosque to preserve the site, while respecting the historical aspect of the monument.
What I learned as an architect, fascinated by these regions and aware of the lack of local history, is that if I had undertaken this restoration without this excavation, I would have undoubtedly committed the irreparable, burying the possibility of knowing more about a site that was buried for more than 3 m at the beginning. The adage "I don't know what I don't know" has never been more true than in front of this mass of earth, of the first soil that covers everything and suddenly clues appear, hypotheses are formed or collapse, we penetrate an infinite world, this "dark abyss of time" (Buffon) whose limits we don't know but which makes us patient, attentive to every detail. And first of all to specific constructive modes.