The Ksar Sidi Bou Abdellah in Mdagra Oasis, Morocco

Abstract

In the southeastern Moroccan pre-Saharan valleys we see how earthen cities (ksar sing., ksour pl.) represent a culture, the Berber culture, which has influenced, through historical events and its social patterns, the development of cities built with earth, following a unique and characteristic urban design. In this writing we will study the Sidi Bou Abdellah ksar, one of the most important ones from the sixteenth century onwards, in the so called caravan route, an archetypal earthen city of the Mdagra oasis, located in the Er Rachidia province in southeast Morocco. From a historical viewpoint, we will start studying its shape and layout, aspects related to its establishment within the territory, its external morphology, internal pattern and facilities, aiming to determine the factors that give this city its Islamic-Berber character. © 2015 Taylor & Francis Group.