AGADIR

The fortress built by Idriss ^I and the foundations of the mosque, whose ruins can be seen through a fence opposite the minaret, are certainly among Tlemcen's oldest monuments. Over the centuries, the Agadir has undergone many changes as a result of the defensive measures adopted by the Umayyads of Cordoba and the Zianids, who undertook major renovations. All that remains of the mosque, built in the late ^8th century (790), is the minaret, commissioned in the ^13th century by Yaghmoracen and now isolated on the edge of town. You have to climb 127 steps to reach its almost 26 m-high summit. The stones used for the base were taken from Roman buildings, as Latin inscriptions show. Its foundations were found during excavations. Shortly after the minaret, Bab El-Akba, "the gate of ascent", is one of the oldest gates in the old town. Continuing along this road, you come to the Sacred Wood of Sidi Yacoub, shaded by the saint's sober tomb, the Koubba of Sidi El-Ouahab, said to house the remains of a prophet's companion close to Okba, the conqueror of the Maghreb, and the tomb of the Sultana. So named because it contains the epitaph of a princess, a descendant of Yaghmoracen, who died in 1412, and that of a woman of royal blood, the tomb was in fact built in the ^12th century by the Almoravids. The koubba rests on an octagonal base supported by lobed arches.