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33-458: The massif was studied by Moroccan sociologist Paul Pascon . Starting with the 1999 film The Mummy , it has also been used as a filming location, and has become a tourist attraction especially for off-roaders. Gara Medouar is located 12 km (7.5 mi) to the west of the principal tell of Sijilmasa, in the Tafilalt region. It is a limestone massif that rises 50 m (160 ft) above

66-631: A Pied-Noir who had acquired land in Morocco after World War I but never became a successful farmer. One of his ancestors had been involved in the Rif War , and the French-Moroccan conflict of the 1950s also provoked tension. As a result of these involvements he developed "a lifelong devotion to the understanding and advancement of the Moroccan peasant"; later (in 1964 ) he acquired Moroccan citizenship. He became

99-496: A noria . The combined evidence of walls and dams and possibly associated constructions indicate the massif became a fortress that could have withstood a siege lasting a few months, depending on the season. Besides the walls and dams there are a number of other man-made structures, most of them on the plateaus and on the north or west side of steep peaks. Most of the 27 structures are spaced out from each other. Six of them are so ruined that their purpose cannot be established, though it

132-465: A postern , in about the middle of the western wall. The higher walls are up to 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) thick, and between 1.5–2 m (4 ft 11 in – 6 ft 7 in) high. This higher wall allows for surveillance of the entire area south of the massif, and gaps between the rocks are filled in with masonry. It is here that Paul Pascon thought he recognized four towers—there is, in reality, only one construction that can be called

165-479: A 1956 article in the journal Hespéris , and it became the subject of a 1956 monograph. In 1956, Pascon was licensed in natural sciences, and sociology in 1958. After a number of administrative jobs he was hired by Institut agronomique et vétérinaire Hassan-II in 1970, where he worked until his death in a variety of functions, founding and leading units including the Department for Rural Development. His 1975 thesis

198-480: A car accident; he was survived by his widow. In an obituary, his friend Ernest Gellner wrote: "He died at the height of his powers, at a time when he was being quite exceptionally productive. His death is a human tragedy, but it is also an immeasurable loss to scholarship. He was unquestionably one of the most thorough, profound, best informed and penetrating of the students of Moroccan and North African society". Rubble stone Rubble masonry or rubble stone

231-399: A central space that dominates the other, surrounding rooms and is the only space in the structure that opens to the outside, resembles medieval Islamic architecture of both rural and urban areas. A tentative assessment is that most of the buildings on the plateaus were houses, built during a short space of time, possibly a large governmental campaign. Six of the buildings are different. One of

264-615: A creative mind are brought to bear on a single region". A former communist and Marxist, he let go of those ideologies later in life. Pascon was also a research associate at Centre national de la recherche scientifique , France, and associate professor at Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium. Paul Pascon was an atheist. Pascon's two children died during the Western Sahara War . Pascon died on 21 April 1985 in Mauritania after

297-710: A scout when he was seven. In 1942 his father was imprisoned in Boudenib and his mother placed in Midelt for opposing the Vichy regime ; Paul was placed in a boarding school until the Americans arrived in North Africa. A materialist who emphasized the crucial importance of ideas, a sociologist who emphasized the importance of geography, technology, and above all history, Pascon saw in the Haouz both

330-511: A series of three rooms that were accessible from each other, rather than from the central space, in a style of architecture rarely found in the east but often in the west, particularly in the Iraq of the Abbasid Caliphate . The buildings, in their layout, construction, and spacing, suggest an elite occupied that part of the massif; the plateau itself already has characteristics that set it apart from

363-652: A terrain for investigation and also a subject from which Moroccans (and others) could learn how change took place and how change could be generated. At age 17, Pascon won a prize for a report on the Ziz and Rhéris rivers, and in 1951 he received his baccalauréat in experimental sciences from the Lycée Gouraud in Rabat . He chose natural science and received his Certificat d'études supérieures préparatoires in 1952. In that year he also visited Gara Medouar ; he wrote about his visit in

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396-428: A tourist destination began with a film: the location was opened up for cinema, off-roading, and tourism because of the 1999 film The Mummy . The site itself was opened up because the crew built a concrete ramp through a breach in the low wall, in the southwest opening of the formation, and one of the film's central locations was built inside. In 1999, remains of plaster indicated where film sets had been constructed, and

429-422: A tower, the bastion at the northern end of the low wall. A separate wall surrounds the area in front of the low wall, at a distance of about 100 m (330 ft); most of the foundations of this wall have disappeared. It had a V-shape, with a dike and a ditch. In all, the defensive works evidence careful planning, architectural mastery, and a good sense of how best to exploit natural features. In addition to being

462-458: A well-protected fort, its high ground also offers far-reaching control over the surrounding area—from the heights of Mudawwar, one can survey an area with a radius of about 50 km (31 mi). The defensive structures also include four excellently-preserved dams in the largest ravines. The dams are between 1.5–2.3 m (4 ft 11 in – 7 ft 7 in) thick, and up to 5 m (16 ft) high. That they are dams and not walls

495-409: Is 80 m (260 ft) long and about 4 m (13 ft) thick, and consists of limestone blocks held together with lime mortar . Two "higher" walls are on the slopes. The shortest of the two is in the south and joins the low wall on its eastern end, where a gate was; the longest higher wall runs from the western end (at a bastion ) almost to the northern tip of the massif. There may have been

528-409: Is possible one of them was a musalla . Fifteen of the remaining buildings are quite similar (a uniformity or standardization that also signals a hierarchy and organization of spaces), and consist of a central, open space surrounded by separate rooms that open to the central space but not each other. Without archeological digs, the purpose of these buildings cannot be established. Their organization, with

561-405: Is proven by their position, as well as their construction: on the uphill side, they are covered by a layer of mortar whose density indicates it was a water barrier. The reservoirs that would have been filled up during the rains do not appear to have supported agriculture: there are no irrigation channels. Still, some hydrological works may have existed, evidenced by shards possibly from the buckets of

594-412: Is rough, uneven building stone not laid in regular courses . It may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or ashlar . Some medieval cathedral walls have outer shells of ashlar with an inner backfill of mortarless rubble and dirt. Square rubble masonry consists of stones that are dressed (squared on all joints and beds) before laying, set in mortar , and make up

627-445: Is strategically located and naturally forms an almost complete fortress. Gara Medouar has only one large opening, a ravine in the south; about one third of the mountain's perimeter has been fortified by walls, the most important of which is the wall going straight across the ravine in the south. This well-preserved wall (the "low wall") is 8 m (26 ft) high where it abuts the rocks, and in places rises to 12 m (39 ft); it

660-465: The amirs of the Banu Midrar dynasty, Muhammed Ibn al-Fath , who fled from Sijilmasa to "Tasagdalt, a stone fortress some twelve miles from Sijilmasa". It was studied by Moroccan sociologist Paul Pascon , who wrote a brief note on it in the Moroccan journal Hespéris in 1956, and published a monograph, La Gara Medouar , that same year. Pascon first visited the site in 1952 when he spent a few hours at

693-525: The area was littered with plastic bottles. It has been used in other films as well, including as the setting for the headquarters of SPECTRE in the James Bond film Spectre (2015). These activities have hampered recent archeological investigations: inside the wall the construction and then removal of the Mummy film set disrupted the area; outside the wall no excavations were done because of extensive disruption by

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726-653: The construction technique emplekton and made particular use of it in the construction of the defensive walls of their poleis . The Romans made extensive use of rubble masonry, calling it opus caementicium , because caementicium was the name given to the filling between the two revetments . The technique continued to be used over the centuries, as evidenced by the constructions of defensive walls and large works during medieval times. Modern construction frequently uses cast concrete with an internal steel reinforcement. That allows for greater elasticity, as well as providing excellent static and seismic resistance, and preserves

759-481: The desert and consists of fossiliferous beds from the Pragian to Frasnian . The entire area measures about 50 hectares. Most of the perimeter consists of vertical rocks with scree at the bottom. In the south/southwest, the circular formation is broken by a ravine, which continues into the formation as a wadi , providing entrance into the heart of the massif. The wadi starts after the confluence of four ravines, which divide

792-400: The higher ground into five plateaus; at this confluence is a great circle of rock, surrounded by the overhanging plateaus. There is no source of water. Erosion has washed away all loose material, leaving only spurs , and the gara presents itself as essentially a funnel with the constituent canyons leading toward a single exit. The formation, like the fortress of Tasghîmût near Marrakesh ,

825-462: The location, long enough to allow him to write up a description in which he listed a defensive wall, four towers, four dams, and various other constructions; he considered the place a stronghold. Local oral tradition held that the place had been used centuries ago by Portuguese slavers , who had used the place as a warehouse. In 2011, an extensive study was done by MAPS (Moroccan–American Project at Sijilmasa) member Chloé Capel. Its contemporary role as

858-452: The military, the film industry, and tourism, especially that associated with off-roading. Paul Pascon Paul Pascon (13 April 1932 – 21 April 1985) was a Moroccan sociologist whose multidisciplinary work aimed to elucidate French colonialism in Morocco and the capitalism that accompanied it, and the development of Morocco after its independence from France. He was perhaps the first modern scholar to study Gara Medouar , and he

891-528: The others: higher than the others, it offers a view of the defensive works (the low wall), the other structures in the area, the oasis of Tafilalt , and the peak of the Tizi/Mkhazni. Also indicative of a special status are the remains of access routes, including steps in steep rock, that provide direct access to the plateau from the lower area, and to another plateau. The combination of a set of dwellings whose variety indicates social hierarchy suggests Gara Medouar

924-523: The outer surface of a wall. Irregular rubble, or sack, masonry evolved from embankments covered with boards, stones or bricks. That outer surface was used to give the embankment greater strength and make it more difficult for enemies to climb. The Sadd el-Khafara dam , in Wadi Al-Garawi near Helwan in Egypt, which is 14 meters high and built in rubble masonry, dates back to 2900–2600 BC The Greeks called

957-454: The standardized floor plans. The remains of pottery found at Gara Medouar also compare to contemporary pottery found at Sijilmasa. A garrison would have been installed in the massif; for a while, Sijilmasa was the only place where the empire's gold coins were minted. The fortress also protected the trade route coming in from the south. Gara Medouar may have been the Tasagdalt mentioned by one of

990-417: The two on the southernmost plateau consists of two adjoining structures as well as a space for animals, and had a latrine (made possible by its placement on the edge of the plateau). The only other building on the plateau was made of crude bricks (as opposed to rubble from limestone); it may have served as the dwelling for higher-ranked people. Its layout was quite different from all the other buildings, having

1023-510: Was an interdisciplinary study (involving history, sociology, and geography, coupled with his own research, including archives from local families and potentates) of the Haouz province of Marrakesh ; it was published in 1977, and one critic called it "a major step forward in North African studies. It exemplifies the depth of analysis possible when interdisciplinary techniques, indigenous sources, and

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1056-468: Was not just a defensive works, but also an important habitation. Archeologist Chloé Capel argues that the site should be dated to the early medieval time of the caravan routes , 11th–12th century. Its defensive structures and buildings date from the time when Sijilmasa and its surrounding area were incorporated into the Almoravid dynasty , whose representatives likely ordered the construction, as evidenced by

1089-470: Was one of the foremost experts on the Moroccan economy and agriculture and its transformation under colonialism and after independence. Pascon was a Pied-Noir , "of soldier and settler stock". He was born in Fez, Morocco , the son of an engineer of public works, from whom he inherited a love of the outdoors. Later in life he told his friend Ernest Gellner of his family history: his grandfather, he said, had been

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