Agadir Inoumar
Many of you may know Morocco’s coastal city Agadir, however, there are many places in Morocco with the name agadir. In general, the name agadir in the Berber language means wall, enclosure, or fortified building. Those usually were used as granaries and storage of another different kind of goods.
About Agadir Inoumar
There are lots of these old buildings all around Morocco, although most of them are almost collapsed and forgotten. One of these buildings, Agadir Inoumar, was our destination during our trip to Morocco.
We were told by people living in Morocco to go to visit Agadir Inoumar. At that time we did not have any idea about where are we going to see. We just got some guidance regarding the route to go. Have to mention that often Google Maps are useless in Morocco; I even contributed by drawing a new route after we returned from this trip, however, for some reason, it was not accepted by Google.
After our visit we got excited about this topic and we found a good article about Berber Granaries of Morocco – it may be worth reading it if you fancy visiting one of them.
Getting there
There is a very good recently built road if you wish to visit Agadir Inoumar, which is located near Afaïane; precise coordinates of Agadir Inoumar are 30.163274, -9.108826. If you drive from Taroudant, there is only one place where driving might be a bit difficult when you have to cross a riverbed near the Ciments du Maroc plant (coordinates: 30.196085, -9.176542). Here is the major part of the route on the map; after you reach the end of the route in Chtouka, simply continue towards the east; although not marked on Google maps, the road is excellent. Similarly, when you arrive from Agadir.
Normally, there is no water in this river, although, after a heavy rain, you may not be able to cross the river here at all as the bridge collapsed some time ago after very heavy rain. Arrival from Agadir via Biougra and Imi Mqourn (R105) must always be completely safe – you would not have to cross the river as you just pass it.
Visiting site
You may park your car near the site and will have to walk about two thousand feet (600 metres) downhill towards the south-west; you will not see it from the parking (parking place coordinates: 30.166697, -9.107983; it is not an official parking, just a place you may leave your car).
A large part of Agadir Inoumar has recently been renovated and well preserved. There is a guide (who does not speak English) who would show you around the place and explain its usage and history (with our very little knowledge of French we got some understanding).
After the visit, you may wish to leave some 50 MAD for the guide’s assistance and entry into the site. There is still a lot to be done and they would welcome your donations (there even was well well-equipped WC on site which came as a real surprise for us). They also have the Agadir Inoumar website where you may find some additional information in English.