Brick by brick, Morocco rebuilds 12th-century mosque destroyed by 2023 quake 

TINMEL, Morocco — 

The hand-carved domes and brick-laid arches had astir each been enactment backmost unneurotic erstwhile an earthquake shook Morocco truthful violently that they caved successful connected themselves and crashed to the earth.

After astir 900 years, the Great Mosque of Tinmel laic successful pieces — its minaret toppled, its supplication hallway afloat of rubble, its outer walls knocked over.

But adjacent successful ruins, it remained beatified crushed for the residents of Tinmel. Villagers carried the sheet-laden bodies of the 15 assemblage members killed successful the quake down the hillside and placed them successful beforehand of the decimated mosque.

Among the mourners was Mohamed Hartatouch, who helped transportation the remains of his lad Abdelkrim, 33. A substitute teacher, helium died nether bricks and collapsed walls portion the colony waited a time and a fractional for rescue crews to arrive.

"It looked similar a storm. I wasn't capable to consciousness anything," the grieving begetter said, remembering the time aft the quake.

One twelvemonth later, the rubble adjacent Hartatouch's half-standing location has been swept speech and Tinmel residents are anxious to rebuild their homes and the mosque. They accidental the ineffable tract is simply a constituent of pridefulness and root of income successful a portion wherever infrastructure and jobs were lacking agelong earlier the earthquake hit.

"It's our past," Redwan Aitsalah, 32, a operation worker, said the week earlier the earthquake's day arsenic helium reconstructed his location overlooking the mosque.

The September 2023 quake near a way of demolition that volition instrumentality Morocco years to retrieve from. It killed astir 3,000 people, knocked down astir 60,000 homes and leveled astatine slightest 585 schools. Rebuilding volition outgo astir $12.3 billion, according to authorities estimates.

Stretches of roadworthy were near unnavigable, including Tizi N'Test, the steep upland walk that weaves from Marrakech to Tinmel and immoderate of the hardest-hit villages adjacent the earthquake's epicenter.

Workers are present sifting done the rubble, searching for the mosque's puzzle pieces. They are stacking usable bricks and sorting the fragments of remaining decorative elements arch by arch and dome by dome, preparing to rebuild the mosque utilizing arsenic overmuch of the remains arsenic possible.

Though incomparable to the quality nonaccomplishment and suffering, the restoration effort is among Morocco's priorities arsenic it attempts to rebuild.

The country's Ministry of Islamic Affairs and Ministry of Culture person recruited Moroccan architects, archaeologists and engineers to oversee the project. To assist, the Italian authorities has sent Moroccan-born designer Aldo Giorgio Pezzi, who had besides consulted connected Casablanca's Hassan II Mosque, 1 of Africa's largest.

"We volition rebuild it based connected the grounds and remains that we person truthful it returns to however it was," Morocco's 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 utilized to conception astir the area's structures.

It was undergoing an 18-month restoration task erstwhile the quake struck, causing its ornate domes and pillars to cave in. Its clay-colored remnants laic successful pieces beneath scaffolding erected by restoration workers from villages passim the region, 5 of whom besides died.

"The mosque withstood centuries. It's the volition of God," Nadia El Bourakkadi, the site's conservationist, told section media. The temblor leveled it months earlier repairs and renovations were to beryllium completed.

Like successful galore of the area's villages, residents of Tinmel contiguous unrecorded successful integrative tents brought successful arsenic impermanent structure post-earthquake. Some are determination due to the fact that it feels safer than their half-ruined homes, others due to the fact that they person obscurity other to go.

Officials person issued much than 55,000 reconstruction permits for villagers to physique caller homes, including for astir of the homes successful Tinmel. The authorities has distributed fiscal assistance successful phases. Most households with destroyed homes person received an archetypal $2,000 installment of rebuilding aid, but not more.

Many person complained that isn't capable to underwrite the archetypal costs of rebuilding. Fewer than 1,000 person completed rebuilding, according to the government's ain figures.

Despite the grade of their idiosyncratic losses, Moroccans are besides mourning the nonaccomplishment of revered taste heritage. Centuries-old mosques, shrines, fortresses and lodges are scattered passim the mountains. Unlike Tinmel, galore person agelong been neglected arsenic Morocco focuses its improvement efforts elsewhere.

The state sees Tinmel arsenic the cradle of 1 of its astir storied civilizations. The mosque served arsenic a root of inspiration for wide visited ineffable sites successful Marrakech and Seville. Pilgrims erstwhile trekked done the High Atlas to wage their respects and visit. Yet centuries agone it fell into disrepair arsenic governmental powerfulness shifted to Morocco's larger cities and coastline.

"It was abandoned by the state, but materials were ne'er taken from it," said Mouhcine El Idrissi, an archaeologist moving with Morocco's Ministry of Culture. "People present person agelong respected it arsenic a witnesser to their glorious and spiritual past."

Some of the historical sites of the High Atlas person agelong been a lure to tourists. But the earthquake shone a spotlight connected the immense disparities plaguing the chiefly cultivation region. Poverty and illiteracy rates are higher than the nationwide average, according to census information and an October 2023 authorities study connected the 5 earthquake-hit provinces.

"The mountainous areas astir affected were those already suffering from geographical isolation," Civil Coalition for the Mountain, a radical of Moroccan NGOs, said successful a connection connected the earthquake's anniversary. "The calamity revealed structural differences, and a concern caused by improvement policies that person ever kept the mountains extracurricular the scope of their objectives."

"There's a Morocco that exists successful Rabat and Marrakech, but we're talking astir different Morocco that's successful the mountains," added Najia Ait Mohannad, the group's determination coordinator. "Right now, the astir urgent request is rebuilding houses."

The authorities has promised "a well-thought-out, integrated and ambitious program" for the reconstruction and wide upgrading of the affected regions, some successful presumption of infrastructure reinforcement and improving nationalist services. It has besides pledged to rebuild "in harmony with the region's practice and respecting its unsocial architectural features" and "to respect the dignity and customs" of the population.

For the village's residents, the landmark could basal arsenic a awesome of reinvestment successful 1 of Morocco's poorest regions, arsenic good arsenic a tribute to a glorious past.

For now, it stands successful disrepair, its enchanting ruins upheld by woody scaffolding, portion down the hill, villagers bent laundry and turn vegetables amid the remnants of their erstwhile homes and the integrative tents wherever they present live.