TINMEL, Morocco (AP) — The hand-carved domes and brick-built arches were nearly all reassembled when an earthquake struck Morocco so powerfully that they collapsed and crashed to earth.
After nearly 900 years, the Great Mosque of Tinmel lay in pieces: the minaret had collapsed, the prayer hall was full of rubble and the outer walls had been toppled.
But even in ruins, it remained sacred ground for the people of Tinmel. Villagers carried the sheets-laden bodies of the 15 community members killed in the quake down the hill and placed them in front of the destroyed mosque.
Among the mourners was Mohamed Hartatouch, who helped carry the remains of his son Abdelkrim. A 33-year-old substitute teacher, he died under rocks and collapsed walls as the village waited a day and a half for rescuers to arrive.
“It was like a storm. I couldn't feel anything,” the grieving father said, recalling the day after the quake.
A year later, the rubble around Hartatouch's half-standing house has been cleared away and Tinmel residents are eager to rebuild their homes and the mosque. They say the holy site is a point of pride and a source of income in a region that lacked infrastructure and jobs long before the quake struck.
“It is our past,” said Redwan Aitsalah, a 32-year-old construction worker, the week before the anniversary of the earthquake as he rebuilt his home overlooking the mosque.
The September 2023 earthquake left a trail of destruction that will take Morocco years to recover from. Nearly 3,000 people were killed, nearly 60,000 homes were destroyed and at least 585 schools were leveled. The damage will cost about $12.3 billion to rebuild, according to government estimates.
Large parts of the road were impassable, including Tizi N'Test, the steep mountain pass that runs from Marrakech to Tinmel, and some of the worst-affected villages near the earthquake's epicentre.
Workers are now sifting through the rubble for the mosque’s puzzle pieces. They are piling up usable stones and sorting the fragments of the remaining decorative elements arch by arch and dome by dome, preparing to rebuild the mosque with as much of the remains as possible.
Although the loss and suffering of humanity are incomparable, restoration is among Morocco's priorities in its reconstruction.
The country’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs and Ministry of Culture have recruited Moroccan architects, archaeologists and engineers to oversee the project. To help, the Italian government has sent Moroccan-born architect Aldo Giorgio Pezzi, who also served as a consultant on Casablanca’s Hassan II Mosque, one of Africa’s largest.
“We will rebuild it based on the evidence and the remains we have, so that it goes back to what it was,” Moroccan Minister of Islamic Affairs Ahmed Toufiq told The Associated Press.
The Great Mosque was a marvel of North African architecture with lobed arches, hand-carved moldings and the adobe-style bricks, made from packed earth, that were used to build most of the structures in the area.
It was undergoing an 18-month restoration project when the earthquake struck, causing its ornate domes and pillars to collapse. The clay-colored remains lay in pieces under scaffolding erected by restoration workers from nearby villages, five of whom were also killed.
“The mosque has stood for centuries. It is the will of God,” Nadia El Bourakkadi, the site's curator, told local media. The earthquake leveled it months before repairs and renovations were due to be completed.
Like many villages in the area, Tinmel residents now live in plastic tents that were set up as temporary shelters after the earthquake. Some are there because it feels safer than their half-destroyed homes, others because they have nowhere else to go.
Officials have issued more than 55,000 reconstruction permits to villagers to build new homes, including most of the homes in Tinmel. The government has distributed the financial aid in phases. Most households with destroyed homes have received an initial installment of $2,000 in reconstruction aid, but no more.
Many have complained that this is not enough to cover the initial cost of reconstruction. Fewer than 1,000 have completed reconstruction, according to the government's own figures.
Despite the scale of their personal losses, Moroccans also mourn the loss of revered cultural heritage. Centuries-old mosques, shrines, forts and lodges dot the mountains. Unlike Tinmel, many have long been neglected as Morocco focuses its development efforts elsewhere.
The country considers Tinmel the cradle of one of its most storied civilizations. The mosque served as the inspiration for much-visited holy sites in Marrakech and Seville. Pilgrims once traveled across the High Atlas to pay their respects and visit. But centuries ago it fell into disrepair as political power shifted to Morocco’s larger cities and coastline.
“It was abandoned by the state, but no materials were ever taken from it,” said Mouhcine El Idrissi, an archaeologist who works for the Moroccan Ministry of Culture. “People here have long respected it as a witness to their glorious and spiritual past.”
Some of the High Atlas’ historic sites have long been a tourist draw. But the quake has highlighted stark disparities in the largely agricultural region. Poverty and illiteracy rates are higher than the national average, according to census data and an October 2023 government report on the five quake-hit provinces that have long been marginalized.
“The mountainous areas that were most affected were those that were already suffering from geographical isolation,” Civil Coalition for the Mountain, a group of Moroccan NGOs, said in a statement on the anniversary of the quake. “The tragedy revealed structural disparities and a situation caused by development policies that have always left the mountains out of reach of their objectives.”
“There is a Morocco that exists in Rabat and Marrakech, but we are talking about another Morocco that is in the mountains,” added Najia Ait Mohannad, the group’s regional coordinator. “Right now, the most urgent need is to rebuild homes.”
The government has pledged to develop “a well-thought-out, integrated and ambitious program” for the reconstruction and general upgrading of the affected regions, both in terms of strengthening infrastructure and improving public services. It has also pledged to rebuild “in harmony with the heritage of the region and with respect for its unique architectural features” and to respect “the dignity and customs” of the population.
For the villagers, the monument could be a symbol of reinvestment in one of Morocco's poorest regions, and a tribute to a glorious past.
Now it stands in ruins, the enchanting ruins held up by wooden scaffolding. Down on the hill, villagers hang out laundry and grow vegetables amid the remains of their former homes and the plastic tents they now live in.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the AP’s partnership with The Conversation US, with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
