Inheriting Tindjellet: nine hidden fortresses in the ancient Timimoun Sebkha harbour, Gourara (Algerian Sahara)

Abstract

[EN] Tindjellet is one of the fortified settlement oases forming the network of the Gourara defensive structures in the north of Timimoun sebkha or salty soils, on the edge of the Meguiden, an erosion glacis of a sandstone cuesta area of the Continental Intercalaire. Tindjellet nine fortresses are situated in the southwest of Algeria on the ancient caravan trails linking sub-Saharan Africa to the Atlantic shores and the Mediterranean world a site made famous until the 19th century for its eight mosques. By using a space anthropological approach prevailing oral tradition we have tried to understand why Tindjellet is still known as the “Marsa”, an old harbor on the edge of the Hellala plateau. We have also questioned how the inhabited spatial organization grew on a cornice above the Ouled Ilyas bour, a non-irrigated palm tree area owned by a former Andalusian tribe, in this early Saharan lake human settlement today composed of hundreds distinct tumbled-down defensive structures. Despite their advanced state of ruins, whether occupied or abandoned, the nine hidden fortresses and their landscape are identified as the establishment of ancient red sandstone defensive constructive know-how with vertical wells dug one hundred meters into the rocky peak. The building technic is based on curved and right-angled stone masonry of the defensive walls as well as circular and squared angles towers like in Agham Tawriḥt and Taourayaḥt, two Tindjellet nine ruined defensive structures. The fortresses toponymy, the water system and cemetery position together with the saints’ tomb structures highlight the territory defensive system and stone architecture construction technics and allow to follow throughout time the development of this Saharan stone building culture from the Almoravid period to the 18th century.