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1.Adrar- A view of a Palmeraie in the outskirts of Adrar

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2.Adrar- A Beautiful architectural building in the town-centre

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3.Adrar A view of the Foggaras in the town centre

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4.Adrar- A view of the Martyrs place

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5.Adrar- the main entrance to the City Bab Bechar

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6.Adrar- a photo souvenir near the newly-built Sidi Belkebirs Mosque

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7.Adrar- A view at the outskirts of Adrar

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8.Adrar- Another view of the Beautiful landscape

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9.Adrar- A spiritual pause at Moulay Touhamis Zawiya

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IN THE NAME OF GOD THE COMPASSIONATE THE MERCIFUL*Historic Cities of Algeria.

2. ADRAR.

Adrar is a province of south-western Algeria, named after its capitalAdrar A 1500 km distance south-west of Algiers the Capital, it is the

second-largest province, with an area of 427,368 km2, and the present

population is estimated at approximately 400.000 Inhabitants.

Adrar's historical name was given it by the local Berber people, the

Timmi, who established their ksar (fortified village) here, the modern

name is derived from the Berber adrar (mountain), the settlement liesbetween the Erg (sand dunes) Chech and the Grand Erg Occidental

near the streambed of the Wadi Messaoud. The Adrar area was

historically a strategic point on the trade route between North and West

Africa.

It is bordered to the north by the Wilaya (province) of Bechar, El

Bayadh and Ghardaa, to the west by the Wilaya of Tindouf, to the east

by the Wilaya of Tamanrasset, to the south by Mauritania and Mali.

Adrar is composed from three Regions: Touat (Adrar, Zaouit Kounta),

Gourara (Timimoun), and Tidikelt (Aoulef), divided into 11 Dairates

(counties), 28 Communes (towns) and 299 Ksars (fortified villages).

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An unspeakable and incomparable beauty with oasis rosary and fields of sand roses and

a body of Ksours climbing back up very far in the time the whole ornamented by some

ancient historic monuments that erect themselves as majestic witnesses of a passed

cultural commercial and glorious Islamic civilization among these very well-known sites,

one notes the Region of Timimoun, Tamentit, and Aoulef. This intermingling gave birth to

a body of traditions and of cultural and hand-crafted practices that are still present today

in the life of its inhabitants translating into a wealth of the folklore and cultural heritage.

*ADRAR AND THE WATER CHANNELS OR FOGGARAS:Adrar's main attraction must be the strange organisation of the town true that in the

middle lays a meaningless big square; it cannot be used to anything beyond paradesthat hardly ever take place anyway. And out here in Sahara, big open squares are the

worst thing there is, nowhere to hide from the sun. There are easy to find traces of the

old system of underground water Channels. These traverse the entire oasis, and shall in

the times before modern systems were implemented, have been as long as 2,000 km in

this area alone.

Historically speaking, we may give a brief summary as to the erection of theseFoggaras, with the advent and the rapid expansion of Islam which genuinely provided

another major diffusion of the then technology of irrigation , spreading Qanats this

ingenious system of irrigation from Iran, went on to take another form and shape in

North Africa and its vast Sahara territory.

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It is worth mentioning that the technology of Qanat has rapidly spread throughout

the Middle-East and North Africa under different names as for Touat region the

name Foggara was chosen for such irrigation system, a 600year old irrigation

system widely used in that area, this old-traditional human-made wetland of

channels and storage chambers built 10 to 15 meters (32'48') below ground to

minimize evaporation, much like the qanats farther east.

Thanks to this system, farmers to this day grow more than 100 varieties of date

palms, 600,000 trees total across some 25,000 hectares (62,750 acres) of thisflourishing oasis, which also produces carrots, onions, fruits and other crops.

The Foggaras and the way of dividing water resources among different farmers

remain before all a collective commitment to such irrigation system in this area

and it stems from a deep Islamic culture largely sealed in the hearts of these

brave people as according to the Beloved Prophet Mohameds (PBUH) tradition

which stipulates that: Muslims have common share in three things: pasture,water and firewood , moreover , it is crystal clear that in Muslim tradition, theinterests of the community take precedence over those of individuals or of small

groups, as is generally the case in much of the Western legislation.

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No wonder, that such wicked ill-fated attempt to harm and destabilise a

medieval and inspiring nostalgic

way of life is but a mere hatched plot to uproot all what is good and

proposing in return an inimical

and pernicious prescription in the form of the new tenets ofGlobalisation pills.

And against all odds, Adrar is still consolidating its place as a spiritual

reputed learning centre before anything

with its three largest Schools or Zawiyyas respectively: the Sidi

Mohamed Belkebir Zawiyya, the Sheikh

Salem Ben Brahim Zawiyya and the Sheikh Moulay touhami in Ogadimwhere more than 3000 Students are

learning and studying the Book of Allah is such a great contribution to the

spread of Islam and such ideals are

totally meant for the service of God and to Humanity at large in the path

of truth and knowledge seeking.

mbokreta@maktoob.comMOHAMED BOKRETA

Freelance-Writermohbokreta@yahoo.com

mailto:mbokreta@maktoob.commailto:mbokreta@maktoob.com