Day 3. We took camels out of Erg Chebbi, then drove to Rissani to visit Sijilmassa at the northeast edge of town. There we proceeded west past Nekob, crossing back over the Jebl Sarhro and then to Marrakech. (Click on map to enlarge)
I suppose the
third day began when I woke up with scratchy eyes. All the animal hair rugs hanging in the tent,
including the rug over the entrance had given me some allergic reaction. I opened up the entrance and walked
into the dunes. This was
maybe 3:30 in the morning.
Taurus was high.
Orion was up. Sirius
and Procyon were behind Orion, but Jupiter dominated the eastern sky, much
brighter than any of the stars. I
wandered back to my tent, now aired out.
I fell into a deep sleep.
I was dreaming
when the Sudanese guy appeared at the entrance to my tent, saying, “Time to
move. Sir, time to
move.” It was pre-dawn, and
even though I was pretty groggy, I stuffed up my rucksack and was outside in
just a few minutes, ready to ride.
The camels were waiting on the top of a dune. Mustafa got us all up and moving and we set off
across the dune.
Camels waiting above our camp.
Looking back at the tent-encampment.
Ready to ride.
After some time,
the sun appeared on the eastern horizon, over the mountains across the frontier
in Algeria. We rode through
the dunes, again with Mustafa and Ahmed in the lead. Before too long, the twilight in the east gave into the
rising sun over the mountains across the border in Algeria.
Animal tracks
were readily visible in the slanted rays of the rising sun: here a mouse, there a fox. Often I could make out both a fox
and a mouse track. This
wasn’t surprising. Elsewhere
I could make out the slithering track of a snake.
Sun rising over the mountains in Algeria.
Sand dunes in Erg Chebbi. The crescent shape of the dunes is a result of the prevailing winds.
Our caravan on the way back. Mustafa visible in blue.
After a couple
of hours, we arrived at the hotel at the base of the dunes and got off our
camels. Moustafa and Ahmed
posed for a photo with me. In
spite of my off-key midnight rendition of Not Fade Away, Moustafa seemed to
enjoy my general willingness to learn the Berber way of life.
Me with Mustafa (middle) and Ahmed (right).
Sign in the hotel at the base of the dunes - "Timbuktu 52 days".
We packed into
the 4x4’s and took off for Rissani and the ruins of Sijilmassa, which lie at
the northeast end of the town. The
World Monuments Fund lists Sijilmassa as an endangered site. When you get
there, you can see why. You
drive through the streets of Rissani, passing a pharmacy here, a grocery there,
and pull up into what looks like a rubble strewn vacant lot – until you realize
that there are centuries-old walls just a few paces away. In point of fact, we probably
parked right on top of the remains of the city wall.
With most of the
gang, we wandered around the ruins.
There were obvious walls of complete
structures. The city walls
seemed to be in ruins – just mounds on the periphery. The highest point of the ruins had what appeared to be
a tower on it, with stairs leading to a high platform. I imagined that this was a post
where someone could keep watch on the surroundings.
For me, this was
the high point of the trip.
The location at an oasis on the edge of the desert, but commanding the tallest
ground around seemed like an ideal location for this trans-Saharan trading
post. Pragmatism meets geography. No wonder it was sited there.
The state of
Sijilmassa bothered me greatly.
Here was a location of great historical importance, and yet it had the
status of some dusty back-lot with no protection. Certainly there were not placards or markings designating
its location or significance.
When I first asked Abdeslam about visiting it, he had never heard of it
and had to ask a geologist friend what it was. I suppose on the plus side there were not hoards of
Japanese tourists disgorging from buses, snapping photos. We had the place entirely to ourselves. Perhaps its present state is for
the best, but I can’t imagine that it wouldn’t be of interest to an
archaeologist.
Walls in Sijilmasa.
Walls in Sijilmasa.
Walls in Sijilmasa.
Remains of what appeared to be a tower in Sijilmasa.
Me in Sijilmasa.
The Hassans
drove us through the crowded souk in Rissani. We pulled into a large donkey parking lot – the first time
I’d seen such a place, but it makes sense. Most of the vendors in the souk brought their wares in
using donkeys. They had to keep
the donkeys somewhere, so they were ‘parked’ in a large lot, where they were
kept in place by a rope tied between one of their legs and a stake. Sometimes two neighboring donkeys would
get into a loud dispute, yelping at each other and pushing their heads back and
forth against the other.
Donkey parking lot in Rissani.
Next, the
Hassans took us to a fossil museum/store.
At first I was a bit annoyed at another seeming detour to a vendor, but,
unlike the rug vendor in Ourzazate, I was drawn in. Many of the fossils on display included trilobites and
ammonites, showing some diversity of the local strata. Trilobites extend back as early
as the early Cambrian period (521 MY).
I was told that the ammonites on display dated from the Cretacious era
(60-140 MY). The Cretacious
era was characterized by a warm climate and many inland seas that created vast
limestone deposits.
After the Fossil
Museum, we began the long (500 km) drive back toward Marrakech. The drive east of Rissani was a long
stretch of arid plain at the base of the Anti-Atlas Mountains. Mirages played in the distance. After some time scattered oases
signaled our approach to the valley of the Drâa River. The Drâa is a long (1000 km)
river with a rich valley. Like the
Dades, it empties into the lake next to Oaurzazate.
Mirage in the distance on the drive back from Rissani, approaching Jebl Rhart.
We stopped for
lunch at the town of Nekob that bordered on a large grove of date palms. Again the fare was either tajine or
kabab (surprise!).
Another 50 km
down the road, we crossed over the Drâa.
We drove along the rich valley basin for some distance, but then made
our way up to the Tizi-n-Tinififft pass over the Jebl Sarhro. Evidently the Drâa has been
around for some long time. From
the rich valley, it enters a very deep canyon that slices through the Jebl
Sarhro like a hot knife through butter. I can only imagine that the Jebl Sarhro was created in
a relatively recent uplift and the river carved its way through the soft
sedimentary rock. Near the pass the layers of rock resembled the contours of a
topographic map.
View of a date grove in Nekob.
Mesa in the Jebl Rhart complex.
View of the Draa River cutting through the Jebl Sarhro. Note the 'contour map' like layering of sedimentary rock.
Dropping out of
the Tizi-n-Tinififft pass, we regained Ourzazate. Already the hour was late, and we had a considerable
distance to cover to get back to Marrakech. The rest of the drive was pretty much a pedal-to-the-metal
exercise. We hit sunset as
we climbed toward the Tizi-n-Tichka pass over the High Atlas. We drove into the night as we
dropped into the valley where Marrakech lay. We saw the city glowing red in the distance, still
some 70 km away.
Finally at 10
PM, we got back to the hotel.
We hugged the Hassans goodbye, and then went into the lobby, where we
were in for a rude surprise.
The hotel clerks had given away our rooms to the incoming members of the
ATLAS Collaboration. Jene was quite irritated. I tried to play the suffering card, explaining that I’d gotten on a
camel before dawn near the Algerian border, rode out of the desert, across the
Anti Atlas and the High Atlas, and how could they possibly refuse me a
room? This little speech was
only accompanied by some bemusement on the part of the clerks. My
hard luck story cut any mustard.
We were put up at the hotel next door, which wasn’t so bad, in the
end.
In the end, I
achieved my goal of riding a camel into the dunes, sleeping overnight under the
stars, and visiting Sijilmassa!
Everything else was icing on the cake, even the Innocents Abroad
moments.
الحكمة تكمن وراء النجوم
(translation: "Wisdom lies behind the stars" - a quote for Abdselam I wrote in a copy of my book I gave to him as a gift for arranging the trip)
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