Here a strict integralism is lived, respecting tradition and safeguarding a long-established identity. However, the relationship with the outside world is loyal and unconditional. The Ibadites are proud, self-assured people, intellectually solid, who do not fear cultural influences. The ancient Middle Eastern influence made them great merchants, open to exchange and dialogue with the world, while religious rigor, wisdom, and a strong sense of privacy protect them from any external “contamination”.
A valley loved by Le Corbusier and protected by UNESCO
Men of culture and excellent architects, the Ibadites, now better known as Mozabites, have transformed over the centuries the arid hills that hide the M’Zab wadi into an extraordinary microcosm. The structure of their cities has fascinated urban planners and world-renowned architects such as Le Corbusier and Ricardo Bofill, and the Holy City of the M’Zab valley, Beni Isguen, has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage protected sites.
The valley is located about 700 kilometers south of Algiers, in a harsh and hostile land but sheltered from ancient persecutions. On the hills there are now 5 oases, built over the last thousand years. The first to be built was El Atteuf, the “Turning point,” dating back to 1013. Ghardaïa was founded in 1053 by Sheikh Sidi Bou-Gdemma and is the current administrative capital, and Melika, the “Queen,” was the ancient Holy City that lost its religious function after the construction of Beni Isguen in 1347. Bou Nura, the “Luminous,” dates to 1046.
All five oases have a well-defined social function, are all fortified, and each has its mosque and minaret from which the muezzin calls five times daily. Each has its own economy: ceramics and leather processing, livestock farming, but above all, trade.
“Machine à habiter” and crossroads of the Great South
In recent decades, Mozabite merchants have created a dense commercial network and are present throughout Algerian territory. Moreover, Ghardaïa is located on the route to Niger and Mali, and is a crucial desert crossroads: it is the privileged interchange point between nomadic populations and Maghreb traders, as well as the departure station for the Great South. The market square of Ghardaïa comes alive every day with carpets, spices, fabrics, animals, and handicraft items, and in October, dates.
But the market, an area for buying and selling products, is also a place of cultural exchanges, and therefore a potential threat to moral and spiritual integrity. Skilled Mozabite architects have structured their cities with an eye to safeguarding their culture and caste by confining commercial spaces to the lower part of the hill. At the top, however, is the mosque with its minaret, a kind of watchtower often used as a grain store. Then come the homes of notables, further down toward the valley, the houses of professionals follow a terraced layout with narrow streets and corridors that cope with summer temperatures exceeding 55° C.
The elegant simplicity of the house shapes and decorations, with proportions and measures independent of economic well-being or social position, aligns with the Mozabites’ principles of equality; construction materials are the same for all: palm wood, stone, plaster, lime, and sand.
Each city is also protected by enclosure walls and watchtowers. All can be visited freely except Beni Isguen, the Holy City with a large triangular square and all streets converging towards the mosque, where foreign visitors must take a guide and photography is forbidden. The structure of the M’Zab valley cities matches Le Corbusier’s idea of urban architecture: a “machine à habiter,” without academicism, human-sized, where the whole city becomes a large dwelling.
Enchanted gardens and bee-men
The Mozabite “pentapolis” also has a unique, enormous, immense palm grove: 1,000,000 date palms irrigated by a sophisticated system managing subterranean river waters. It is a capillary system of dams, barriers, galleries, and distributors that channel, sort, and regulate water so that all gardens receive the right amount. This irrigation system is almost 900 years old and composed of 7,000 artesian wells that draw water from as much as 80 meters deep directly from the ancient wadi’s aquifer.
The palm grove is an enchanted garden where forgotten rhythms are found, gently immersed in the cool, silent green of trees and surrounded by the scent of jasmines and roses, dates and orange blossoms. A true oasis within the oasis. A magical place where the Mozabite man has a special task. He pollinates the female palm flowers by climbing each tree, one after another, hand-pollinating the flowers rather than relying on the wind. Before each pollination, there is a propitiatory prayer, a sort of nuptial rite to unite the two palms.
The purity of the haïks, mosques, and soul
Spirituality is very strong in the M’Zab. Here integralism is not an extreme form of religion. It feels more like a large monastery where everyone seeks to earn their place in paradise. Besides those atop the cities, mosques are everywhere. They have no minaret, and inside there is no decoration that could distract from meditation and prayer. Mosques are simple, white, with uneven arches made from bent palm trunks, a semi-basement with several rooms, and a prayer area outside or on the roof. Each room has small niches, and there is a mihrab, an apse facing Mecca from where the Imam leads prayers. It is said that Le Corbusier was inspired by the simplicity and beauty of the Sidi Brahim mosque at the gates of El Ateuf when building the chapel at Ronchamp.
Forgotten rhythms
In the M’Zab, time is measured by prayers and the sun’s height on the horizon. Everyone is afforded their time. Women walk with natural lightness wrapped in their pure white haïks. They keep only one eye uncovered, the left one, the eye of the heart, and go to the cemetery to honor their loved ones or to offer food to a sheikh buried in his tomb monument, as an ancient pre-Islamic custom dictates.
Men engage in lively commercial negotiations. The “notables,” dignified and austere in their elegant burnouses or white ganduras, calmly discuss business and politics. Meanwhile, dozens of children run and play, entering and exiting the cool little alleys. Wise elders seated in the square or near the minaret watch and comment on life flowing peacefully, waiting.
