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Volubilis
Volubilis (; ; ) is a partly excavated Berber-Roman city in Morocco, situated near the city of Meknes, that may have been the capital of the Kingdom of Mauretania, at least from the time of King Juba II. Before Volubilis, the capital of the kingdom may have been at Gilda. Built in a fertile agricultural area, it developed from the 3rd century BC onward as a Berber, then proto-Ancient Carthage, Carthaginian, settlement before being the capital of the kingdom of Mauretania. It grew rapidly under Roman rule from the 1st century AD onward and expanded to cover about with a circuit of walls. The city gained a number of major public buildings in the 2nd century, including a basilica, Roman temple, temple and triumphal arch. Its prosperity, which was derived principally from olive growing, prompted the construction of many fine town-houses with large Roman mosaic, mosaic floors. The city fell to local tribes around 285 and was never retaken by Rome because of its remoteness and inde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Idrisid Dynasty
The Idrisid dynasty or Idrisids ( ') were an Arabs, Arab Muslims, Muslim dynasty from 788 to 974, ruling most of present-day Morocco and parts of present-day western Algeria. Named after the founder, Idris I of Morocco, Idris I, the Idrisids were an Alids, Alid dynasty descended from Muhammad through his grandson Hasan ibn Ali, Hasan. Their reign played an important role in the early Islamization of Morocco and also presided over an increase in Arab immigration and Arabization in major urban centers. Fleeing the Abbasid Caliphate to the east in the aftermath of the Battle of Fakhkh, Idris I first established himself in 788 at Volubilis in present-day Morocco with the help of local Berbers, Berber allies. He and his son, Idris II of Morocco, Idris II, subsequently founded what became the city of Fez, Morocco, Fez further east. Fez became the capital of an Idrisid state which ruled most of present-day Morocco and part of western Algeria. After Idris II's death, the realm was divided ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moulay Idriss Zerhoun
Moulay Idriss, Moulay Driss Zerhoun or simply Zerhoun () is a town in the Fès-Meknès region of northern Morocco, spread over two hills at the base of Mount Zerhoun. It is famous for being the site of the tomb of Idris I, the first major Islamic ruler of Morocco, after whom the town is named. It is located near Meknes and overlooks the ruins of Volubilis a few kilometers away. History Idris I (known as Moulay Idris) was a descendant of Muhammad who fled from Abbasid-controlled territory after the Battle of Fakh because he had supported the defeated pro-Shi'a rebels. He established himself at Oualili (Volubilis), a formerly Roman town which by then was mostly inhabited by Berbers and a small population of Judeo-Christian heritage. He used his prestige as a descendant of Muhammad to forge an alliance with local Berber tribes (in particular the Awraba) in 789 and quickly became the most important religious and political leader in the region. As the old site of Roman Volubil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of World Heritage Sites In Africa
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has designated 147 World Heritage Sites in Africa. These sites are located in 46 countries (also called "Sovereign state, state parties"). Selection of World Heritage Sites South Africa and Ethiopia lead with both twelve sites; followed by Morocco and Tunisia being home to nine sites; then Algeria, Egypt, Senegal, and Tanzania at seven. Nine countries have only a single site each. Four sites are shared between two countries: Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Area, Maloti-Drakensberg Park (Lesotho and South Africa), the Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve (Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea), the Stone Circles of Senegambia (the Gambia and Senegal), and Victoria Falls, Zambia, Mosi-oa-Tunya / Victoria Falls (Zambia and Zimbabwe). Two sites are shared among three countries: Sangha Trinational (Central African Republic, Cameroon, and Republic of the Congo, Congo) and W-Arly-Penjari Complex (Benin, Burki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meknes
Meknes (, ) is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco, located in northern central Morocco and the sixth largest city by population in the kingdom. Founded in the 11th century by the Almoravid dynasty, Almoravids as a military settlement, Meknes became the capital of Morocco during the reign of Sultan Ismail Ibn Sharif (1672–1727), son of the founder of the Alaouite dynasty. Sultan Ismail created a massive Kasbah of Moulay Ismail, imperial palace complex and endowed the city with extensive fortifications and monumental gates. The city recorded a population of 632,079 in the 2014 Moroccan census. It is the seat of Meknès Prefecture and an important economic hub in the region of Fès-Meknès. Etymology Meknes is named after an Amazigh (Berber) tribe historically known as the Miknasa ( in Amazigh languages). History Early history (8th–16th centuries) Volubilis, a major Ancient Rome, Roman-era settlement in Morocco and one of its early urban centres, is located near the sit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Idris I Of Morocco
Idris (I) ibn Abd Allah (; d. 791), also known as Idris the Elder (), was a Hasanid and the founder of the Idrisid dynasty in part of northern Morocco, after fleeing the Hejaz as a result of the Battle of Fakhkh.''A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period'', Jamil M. Abun-Nasr, 1987, p. 51-52 He ruled from 788 to 791. He is credited with founding the dynasty that established Moroccan statehood, and is regarded as the founding father of Morocco. History Idris was the great-grandchild of Hasan, who was the son of Fatima and Ali and grandson of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. He was born and raised in Arabia. His paternal half-brothers Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya and Ibrahim had been killed by the Abbasids during an abortive rebellion. His brother Yahya rose in revolt in Daylam, but was forced to surrender. He was persecuted by Caliph Harun al-Rashid thereafter, and repeatedly imprisoned. Idris himself had participated (along with Yahya) in another Alid uprising in 786, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berbers
Berbers, or the Berber peoples, also known as Amazigh or Imazighen, are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa who predate the arrival of Arab migrations to the Maghreb, Arabs in the Maghreb. Their main connections are identified by their usage of Berber languages, most of them mutually unintelligible, which are part of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. They are indigenous peoples, indigenous to the Maghreb region of North Africa, where they live in scattered communities across parts of Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and to a lesser extent Tunisia, Mauritania, northern Mali and northern Niger. Smaller Berber communities are also found in Burkina Faso and Egypt's Siwa Oasis. Descended from Stone Age tribes of North Africa, accounts of the Imazighen were first mentioned in Egyptian hieroglyphs, Ancient Egyptian writings. From about 2000 BC, Berber languages spread westward from the Nile, Nile Valley across the northern Sahara int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1755 Meknes Earthquake
The 1755 Meknes earthquake affected Morocco on 27 November 1755. The earthquake had a moment magnitude () estimated at between 6.5 and 7.0. It devastated the cities of Fes and Meknes—killing at least 15,000 people in both cities. The earthquake struck less than a month after another earthquake that devastated Morocco and Lisbon on 1 November. Previously regarded as an aftershock, this earthquake likely represented rupture of a separate fault due to changes in tectonic stress following their first event. Tectonic setting The western Eurasian–Africa plate boundary is dominated by the Gloria Fault System which lies between the Azores triple junction and Gibraltar Arc. The plate boundary around the Gibraltar Arc and Alboran Sea area is less defined and characterized by a broad zone of seismicity. The African and Eurasian plates converge in a N–S to NNW–SSE direction. The convergence is related to uplift and thrust tectonics along the Rif mountains. Earthquake The shock c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mauretania
Mauretania (; ) is the Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It extended from central present-day Algeria to the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, encompassing northern present-day Morocco, and from the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean in the north to the Atlas Mountains. Its native inhabitants, of Berbers, Berber ancestry, were known to the Romans as the Mauri and the Masaesyli. In 25 BC, the kings of Mauretania became Roman vassals until about 44 AD, when the area was annexed to Rome and divided into two provinces: Mauretania Tingitana and Mauretania Caesariensis. Christianity spread there from the 3rd century onwards. After the Muslim Arabs subdued the region in the 7th century, Islam became the dominant religion. Moorish kingdom Mauretania existed as a tribal kingdom of the Berber Mauri, Mauri people. In the early 1st century Strabo recorded ''Maûroi'' (Μαῦροι in Greek language, Greek) as the native name of a people opposite the Iberian Peninsula. This appel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basilica
In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name to the ''basilica'' architectural form. Originally, a basilica was an ancient Roman public building, where courts were held, as well as serving other official and public functions. Basilicas are typically rectangular buildings with a central nave flanked by two or more longitudinal aisles, with the roof at two levels, being higher in the centre over the nave to admit a clerestory and lower over the side-aisles. An apse at one end, or less frequently at both ends or on the side, usually contained the raised tribunal occupied by the Roman magistrates. The basilica was centrally located in every Roman town, usually adjacent to the forum and often opposite a temple in imperial-era forums. Basilicas were also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oleander
''Nerium oleander'' ( ), commonly known as oleander or rosebay, is a shrub or small tree cultivated worldwide in temperate and subtropical areas as an ornamental and landscaping plant. It is the only species currently classified in the genus ''Nerium'', belonging to subfamily Apocynoideae of the dogbane family Apocynaceae. It is so widely cultivated that no precise region of origin has been identified, though it is usually associated with the Mediterranean Basin. Nerium grows to tall. It is most commonly grown in its natural shrub form, but can be trained into a small tree with a single trunk. It is tolerant to both drought and inundation, but not to prolonged frost. White, pink or red five-lobed flowers grow in clusters year-round, peaking during the summer. The fruit is a long narrow pair of follicles, which splits open at maturity to release numerous downy seeds. Nerium is a poisonous plant but its bitterness renders it unpalatable to humans and most animals, so poison ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carthage
Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classical world. It became the capital city of the civilization of Ancient Carthage and later Roman Carthage. The city developed from a Phoenician colony into the capital of a Punic people, Punic empire which dominated large parts of the Southwest Mediterranean during the first millennium BC. The legendary Queen Elissa, Alyssa or Dido, originally from Tyre, Lebanon, Tyre, is regarded as the founder of the city, though her historicity has been questioned. In the myth, Dido asked for land from a local tribe, which told her that she could get as much land as an oxhide could cover. She cut the oxhide into strips and laid out the perimeter of the new city. As Carthage prospered at home, the polity sent colonists abroad as well as magistrates to rule t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Juba II
Juba II of Mauretania (Latin: ''Gaius Iulius Iuba''; or ;Roller, Duane W. (2003) ''The World of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene'' "Routledge (UK)". pp. 1–3. . c. 48 BC – AD 23) was the son of Juba I and client king of Numidia (30–25 BC) and Mauretania (25 BC – AD 23). Aside from his very successful reign, he was a highly respected scholar and author. His first wife and co-ruler was Cleopatra Selene II, daughter of Queen Cleopatra VII of Ptolemaic Egypt and Roman Triumvir Mark Antony. Life Early life and education Juba II was a Berber prince from Numidia. He was the only child and heir of King Juba I of Numidia; his mother's identity is unknown, though Juba II claimed to be a descendant of General Hannibal (Scol. Lucan, Pharsalia 8.287). In 46 BC, his father was defeated by Julius Caesar (in Thapsus, North Africa), and in 40 BC Numidia became a Roman province. His father had been an ally of the Roman General Pompey. Several modern scholars cite his age at Caesar's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
