Aït-Ben-Haddou

The city on the west bank of the river Asif Ounila is known for its beautiful kasbahs, which are built against a hill. These are made up of clay and are collectively called the ksar. The kasbahs are reinforced by walls with corner towers with narrow alleys in between, and are a typical example of southern Moroccan architecture. At the very top is the grain storage, again within a wall. This was the best defended part of the ksar.

The city was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987

The city was possibly founded around 750 AD by Berbers, led by one Ben-Haddou, who is said to be buried somewhere within the ksar. The city grew into a hub for trade routes between the Sahara and Marrakesh.

The geology of Morocco formed beginning up to two billion years ago, in the Paleoproterozoic and potentially even earlier. It was affected by the Pan-African orogeny, although the later Hercynian orogeny produced fewer changes and left the Maseta Domain, a large area of remnant Paleozoic massifs. During the Paleozoic, extensive sedimentary deposits preserved marine fossils. Throughout the Mesozoic, the rifting apart of Pangaea to form the Atlantic Ocean created basins and fault blocks, which were blanketed in terrestrial and marine sediments—particularly as a major marine transgression flooded much of the region. In the Cenozoic, a microcontinent covered in sedimentary rocks from the Triassic and Cretaceous collided with northern Morocco, forming the Rif region. Morocco has extensive phosphate and salt reserves, as well as resources such as lead, zinc, copper and silver.

The Western High Atlas

The geological base of the Atlas Mountains was created during the Precambrian. The Atlas Mountains were formed during three later geological phases. During the Hercynian orogeny, the collision between Gondwana and Laurasia formed a long mountain range that can stand comparison with the present-day Himalayas. The Anti-Atlas are the remnants of this.
About 66 million years ago, due to the warm climate, the sea level worldwide was higher than in the 21st century. Many coastal areas were under water, so that a sediment package was deposited on the coastal floor. From the beginning of the Alpine orogeny, the border area between Africa and Europe was subject to mountain formation, resulting in, among other things, the Atlas

The Western High Atlas preserves evidence of the formation of the Atlantic margin in North Africa. In the Late Triassic, rifting in central Pangaea began to form the Atlantic Ocean. Large alluvial fans began to fill the down-dropped grabens with fluvial sandstones, mudstones and conglomerates, intercalated with evaporite sequences of dolomite, halite and gypsum. A tholeiitic magma series formed dolerite, capping off the Triassic sequence. Clastic sediments continued to deposit into the Jurassic. Simultaneously, in the Middle Jurassic, limestone shoals formed on fault blocks and chaotic olistostrome slump deposits accumulated limestone fragments in nearby deep water.

The Rifo-Tellian Domain (also known as the Rif Domain) today extends the entire length of the Maghreb and is closely related to the Baetic System mountains in southern Spain. The sediments in the Rif Mountains deposited in the present location of Tunisia in the Triassic, as part of a microcontinent.

A large scale marine transgression in the Cretaceous, timed with subsidence in the region led to the maximum extent of seas in Morocco. By the end of the Cretaceous, a marine regression dropped sea levels in the area as the Atlas Mountains began to rise. River delta fans prograded filled in the Atlas gulf from east to west. Border faults formed, thrusting pieces of Mesozoic rock onto neighboring platforms. The uplifted sedimentary rocks in the trough began to erode into new alluvial fans, filling in marginal foredeep areas.

Building materials at this Atlas lokation

The ksar's structures are made entirely out of rammed earth, adobe, clay bricks, and wood. Rammed earth  was a highly practical and cost-effective material but required consistent maintenance. It was made of compressed earth and mud, usually mixed with other materials to aid adhesion. The structures of Ait Benhaddou and of other kasbahs and ksour throughout this region of Morocco typically employed a mixture of earth and straw, which was relatively permeable and easily eroded by rain over time. As a result, villages of this type can begin to crumble only a few decades after being abandoned.At Ait Benhaddou, taller structures were made of rammed earth up to their first floor while the upper floors were made of lighter adobe so as to reduce the load of the walls.

Hydrogeology

Quaternary alluvial aquifers form in river basins throughout the country. Low permeability clay and silt divided these deposits into multilayer aquifers and they typically range between five and 150 meters deep, with recharge from rainwater and Atlas Mountains runoff. The Meseta region has small, unconfined fractured igneous rock aquifers, with low permeability and low productivity. Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic sandstone aquifers in the northern plains and around Tadla, Saïsis and Tensift range between 10 and 200 meters thick. In some places, groundwater from these sandstones is very saline, due to dissolved Triassic and Jurassic evaporites. A few deep karst aquifers are found beneath the Tadla, Fes-Sais and Essaouira plains, along with the Atlas Mountains and the Anti-Atlas Mountains. These karst aquifers are almost universally high quality and produce some important springs.

The Anti-Atlas Mountains also have high productivity fractured Cambrian karst, together with low-productivity, crystalline Precambrian basement rock

HOW TO LOG:

1. Take a picture of yourself + your Travelbug on top of the hill and post it to the log. 

2. Geology belongs to which branch of science?:

A. Social sciences, B. Natural sciences, C. Formal sciences

3.  Which of the following  is NOT a top variety of rocks on Earth?

A. Paleomorphic, B. Sedimentary, C. Igneous

4.Which of the following  is type of rocks you can find on this location? How do you know ?

A. Paleomorphic, B. Sedimentary, C. Igneous

5. looking at how the rocks are in their natural state and compare the rocks to the clay deposits, What do you see ?

6. What is rock mainly composed of?

A. Solid crystals of various minerals, B. Sands getting harder over time, C. Remains of dead plants or animals

7. Limestone is commonly used in the production of what?

A. Cement, B. Glass, C. Bricks

8. what do you think you would not find if you would dig a 1 meter hole at this locaton ? and why ?

A. Sand, B. Stone / Rocks, C. Ground Water

9. Find out the height above sea level you are on the GZ. ( and and also mention it in the log)

"Log this cache "Found" and send me your suggested answers via my profile or via geocaching.com messaging (Message Center), and I will contact you if there is a problem."