Previous:
Ziz valley		 Caravane Route
Sijilmassa		 Next:
The Desert

Leo notes
Caravan notes
Cristel notes

The fall of Sijilmassa

Walking past the barren lands where Sijilmassa once stood, one wonders how a city once so grand could sink into such nothingness. If one trusts Leo's memory of the town's descriptions by the historian Al Bakri, we should have seen:


"a safe town with beautiful homes. It prospered thanks to trade with the Sudan. It had grand mosques and medersas with numerous fountains, where water from the river flowed . Great wheels propelled this water from the Ziz down canals which ran through town." (Leo, 430)

But what we saw was even more barren than the ruins Leo crossed some 5 centuries ago!

" Today, Sijilmassa is entirely ruined, and its inhabitants have gathered in nearby villages."
"We can still see remains of the walls that once surrounded the city" (Leo, 430).

Leo says he lived in the region around Sijilmassa for several months. During his stay there, he seems to have gathered quite a few details about the rise and fall of the city:

"According to some, this town was founded by a roman soldier who left Mauritania to conquer Numidia and went as far West as Messa (modern day Agadir). He named this town Sigillum Messe, for it was the last town in the State of Messa and marked the end of his conquests. The name then became Sijilmassa. According to our legends and the geographer Al Bakri, the town was founded by Alexander the Great for his army's sick and invalids." (Leo, 430)



  Perhaps a part of that famous water system

No prolonged serious research has been done about Sijilmassa. A few archeological digs have uncovered ruins that could potentially be Roman, but this is yet unconfirmed. Al Bakri, who wrote in the XIth century is the first to have spoken about the city's foundation.

Sijilmassa prospered thanks to an unexpected change in the caravan routes linking the Sudan to the Orient (Egypt and Baghdad). Indeed, in the IXth century, the Egyptian Sultan forbid caravans to cross the desert through Southern Egypt (due to the length and dangers of this route), thus sending all traffic through Sijilmassa. At its height, the city controlled the Ziz valley, Draa Valley and even territories as far North as Sefrou (beyond the Atlas range, just South of Fes).

The details of the city's decline are little known, though they coincide with the arrival of the Almohade dynasty in the XIth century. According to Leo, the city's actual destruction occurred during the reign of the Merinid dynasty, in the XIVth century:

"When the Merinids came to power they took over the region of Sijilmassa. The town's government was traditionally given to a relative of the Sultan, most often his son. At the death of Achmed, king of Fes [1393], the region rose up in arms, killed its governor and destroyed the city walls. The city has remained deserted since then." (Leo, 425)

One only wishes there were a bit more to say... to know...