1.

Adrar- A view of a Palmeraie in the outskirts of Adrar

2.Adrar- A Beautiful architectural building in the town-centre
3.Adrar – A view of the Foggaras in the town centre
4.Adrar- A view of the Martyr’s place
5.Adrar- the main entrance to the City Bab Bechar
6.Adrar- a photo souvenir near the newly-built Sidi Belkebir’s Mosque
7.Adrar- A view at the outskirts of Adrar
8.Adrar- Another view of the Beautiful landscape
9.Adrar- A spiritual pause at Moulay Touhami’s Zawiya
 IN THE NAME OF GOD THE COMPASSIONATE THE MERCIFUL
*Historic Cities of Algeria.
2. ADRAR.
Adrar is a province of south-western Algeria, named after its capital
Adrar A 1500 km distance south-west of Algiers the Capital, it is the
second-largest province, with an area of 427,368 km2, and the present
population is estimated at approximately 400.000 Inhabitants.
Adrar's historical name was given it by the local Berber people, the
Timmi, who established their ksar (fortified village) here, the modern
name is derived from the Berber adrar (mountain), the settlement lies
between the Erg (sand dunes) Chech and the Grand Erg Occidental
near the streambed of the Wadi Messaoud. The Adrar area was
historically a strategic point on the trade route between North and West
Africa.
It is bordered to the north by the Wilaya (province) of Bechar, El
Bayadh and Ghardaïa, to the west by the Wilaya of Tindouf, to the east
by the Wilaya of Tamanrasset, to the south by Mauritania and Mali.
Adrar is composed from three Regions: Touat (Adrar, Zaouit Kounta),
Gourara (Timimoun), and Tidikelt (Aoulef), divided into 11 Dairates
(counties), 28 Communes (towns) and 299 Ksars (fortified villages).
An unspeakable and incomparable beauty with oasis rosary and fields of sand roses and
a body of Ksours climbing back up very far in the time the whole ornamented by some
ancient historic monuments that erect themselves as majestic witnesses of a passed
cultural commercial and glorious Islamic civilization among these very well-known sites,
one notes the Region of Timimoun, Tamentit, and Aoulef. This intermingling gave birth to
a body of traditions and of cultural and hand-crafted practices that are still present today
in the life of its inhabitants translating into a wealth of the folklore and cultural heritage.
*ADRAR AND THE WATER CHANNELS OR FOGGARAS:
Adrar's main attraction must be the strange organisation of the town true that in the
middle lays a meaningless big square; it cannot be used to anything beyond parades
that hardly ever take place anyway. And out here in Sahara, big open squares are the
worst thing there is, nowhere to hide from the sun. There are easy to find traces of the
old system of underground water Channels. These traverse the entire oasis, and shall in
the times before modern systems were implemented, have been as long as 2,000 km in
this area alone.
Historically speaking, we may give a brief summary as to the erection of these
“Foggaras”, with the advent and the rapid expansion of Islam which genuinely provided
another major diffusion of the then technology of irrigation , spreading “Qanats” this
ingenious system of irrigation from Iran, went on to take another form and shape in
North Africa and its vast Sahara territory.
It is worth mentioning that the technology of Qanat has rapidly spread throughout
the Middle-East and North Africa under different names as for Touat region the
name “Foggara” was chosen for such irrigation system, a 600year old irrigation
system widely used in that area, this old-traditional human-made wetland of
channels and storage chambers built 10 to 15 meters (32'–48') below ground to
minimize evaporation, much like the qanats farther east.
Thanks to this system, farmers to this day grow more than 100 varieties of date
palms, 600,000 trees total across some 25,000 hectares (62,750 acres) of this
flourishing oasis, which also produces carrots, onions, fruits and other crops.
The “Foggaras” and the way of dividing water resources among different farmers
remain before all a collective commitment to such irrigation system in this area
and it stems from a deep Islamic culture largely sealed in the hearts of these
brave people as according to the Beloved Prophet Mohamed’s (PBUH) tradition
which stipulates that: “Muslims have common share in three things: pasture,
water and firewood” , moreover , it is crystal clear that in Muslim tradition, the
interests of the community take precedence over those of individuals or of small
groups, as is generally the case in much of the Western legislation.
 So it is clear that in Adrar, Farmers rely on this ingenious and ancient system to capture
and distribute groundwater, the “foggaras” being a complex network of underground
channels and storage chambers that allow water to flow within the oases, the water is
then brought to the surface and distributed according to an ancestral social organization
via a tool called the “Kasria”.
The kasria is like a cookie cutter: a plate measuring some 25cm wide and 50cm long
with differently sized holes along its length. The kasria is inserted vertically into the
underground stream to bring water to the surface. This water is then divided into
channels of different sizes that run to individual gardens, whereas , the amount of water
is controlled by the size of the hole in the kasria, and corresponds to the need of
individual families as determined by a local committee.
In this way, the water is shared equitably for the cultivation of date palms as well as
cereals and
Vegetables and up to now, there is no objections whatsoever from all farmers of this
region to this
Water-distribution system which remains a legacy of many centuries and that is
rightly continuing but
misleading labels and slogans such as “agriculture-modernism” and “foreign
technical assistance”
according to some farmers are interfering with a new line of conduct which despite its
apparent “human
face” is certainly doomed to failure.
No wonder, that such wicked ill-fated attempt to harm and destabilise a
medieval and inspiring nostalgic
way of life is but a mere hatched plot to uproot all what is good and
proposing in return an inimical
and pernicious “prescription” in the form of the new tenets of
“Globalisation pills”.
And against all odds, Adrar is still consolidating its place as a spiritual
reputed learning centre before anything
with its three largest Schools or Zawiyyas respectively: the Sidi
Mohamed Belkebir Zawiyya, the Sheikh
Salem Ben Brahim Zawiyya and the Sheikh Moulay touhami in Ogadim
where more than 3000 Students are
learning and studying the Book of Allah is such a great contribution to the
spread of Islam and such ideals are
totally meant for the service of God and to Humanity at large in the path
of truth and knowledge seeking.
‫محمد بوكريطة الحسني‬
‫كاتب مستقل‬
mbokreta@maktoob.com
MOHAMED BOKRETA
Freelance-Writer
mohbokreta@yahoo.com