About a hundred kilometres southwards Marrakech,
on the road to Asni, we enter a narrow and deep valley where we
suddenly feel transported in the Cathar country, south of France.
On a first peak, a kasbah, then, hanging to the slopes of the Atlas,
on a small plateau, nearly invisible and mixed with the rocks, a
small mosque of no more than 45 square meters, a little architectural
jewel, a very pure almohad building.
Tan Mel mosque, this is it, has been forgotten for centuries, before
it was renovated in 1997. It is one of the very important places
of Morocco history. In the XIth century, Ibn Tourmert goes to Mecca
for the pilgrimage. He comes back convinced that Almoravids are
decadent, and are to be chased from the throne. That’s the
starting point of a long conquest which will bring Ibn Tourmert,
the Mahdi, to the doors of Marrakech, in Tan Mel stronghold, where
he is buried. His follower, Abd al-Moumen Ibn Ali will enter Marrakech,
destitute the Almoravids, and will finish his conquering march in
Granada Caliphate
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He also builds a mausoleum for the Mahdi, and a mosque in Tan
Mel.
The village becomes a important cultural and spiritual centre of
the Almohad empire. A royal palace is also built, pilgrims come
from all Morocco. Tan Mel position is highly strategic, as it is
one of the keys of the road to the South, through the pass of Tizi.
Later on, after the end of the Almohads, Tan Mel will be forgotten,
and its mosque falls into ruins.
Its architecture is typical of that time which also left us Hassan
Tower in Rabat, Koutoubia in Marrakech and Giralda in Sevilla. Its
naves are now under the sky, but some parts of its cedar roofs remain,
and the mihrab (small niche that gives the direction of Mecca) was
also renovated. A walk in these open alleys, between pure and sober
arcs, admiring a few head columns decorated with floral and geometrical
motives, is a journey in another world.
A surge towards purity and ascetic, fight against a decadent central
power and a corrupted religion… not only the landscape reminds
the Cathars in Tan Mel
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