SIJILMASSA
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The entrance to the ruins is 300 m from the city gates, on both sides of the road. We do not know the exact date of the foundation of this fabulous city, that the geographer El Bekri, of the XIth century, makes go back up to the year 140 of the Hégire (792 of our era). From the 9th to the 11th century, Sijilmassa was the capital, the religious center of the Zénètes Berbers and the economic center of an independent kingdom, limited to the north and south by the Atlas Mountains and the desert, to the east and west by the Drâa and the Ziz. An important caravanning center between Morocco, Mali, Sudan and Niger, Sijilmassa ensured the trade of precious commodities, such as salt, dates, cloth, gold and other metals. With a population of 100,000 inhabitants and made up of 600 kasbahs, it is even the direct rival of cities like Fez or Marrakech. But the city aroused a lot of covetousness, and it was conquered by the Almoravids around 1055, who continued the commercial activity. The reasons for the disappearance of Sijilmassa are unknown, but it is known that it was sacked in 1362 by Arab nomads. When Leon the African went there in 1550, all that remained of the city were ruins and vestiges of a past splendor. Replaced by Rissani, it was definitively destroyed and razed in the 19th century. Once on the site, it is hard to imagine that this is the cradle of a civilization whose influence has spread throughout North Africa. A step which will undoubtedly fascinate the amateurs of archaeology and history!
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