” I’m amazed ! Having a place like this in Azilal is priceless! » Soufiane Aarab can’t believe her eyes. This teacher wanders under the imposing dome of the brand new museum of Unesco Geopark M’Goun in Azilal in the Moroccan Atlas. Here is the cast of the skeleton of Atlasaurus imelakei, a 18 meter long and 6 meter high dinosaur that lived 180 million years ago. The original, discovered in 1979 in the nearby mountains and preserved in Rabat, weighs almost 22 tons!
To get to the circular room that houses the “star” of the museum, inaugurated on June 20, visitors first pass through a long tunnel with a series of niches. This is followed by boards, models and instructional videos on the Big Bang, the history of dinosaurs, the geology of the region and typical Amazigh (Berber) architecture.
Nestled in the mountains of the central High Atlas, the small town of Azilal is the gateway to the M’Goun Geopark, a region of rich geological, paleontological, biological and cultural riches. This geopark was the first in Africa to be recognized by Unesco in 2014. It remains largely unknown, particularly among tourists who crowd the narrow streets of Marrakech’s medina, 150km away.
First UNESCO Geopark in Africa
“It is a very rich area, but unfortunately very little appreciated. The museum will finally bring light to the region,” says Fatima Amagar, curator of the museum and former director of the Geopark. In its area of 5,700 km², which varies between 500 and 4,068 m above sea level, the geopark has 22 “geosites”.
These include thousands of fossilized dinosaur footprints scattered throughout the region, rock carvings, spectacular villages and even remarkable geological formations. “The Ait Ballal syncline, for example, is an exceptional geological archive,” explains Fatima Amagar and points to a large photo of the place on the Museumsweg. It involves arranging successive horizontal layers of rock on mounds, allowing the geological history of the region to be ‘read’ from -195 million years to -90 million years.
Near Azilal, around the small town of Demnate, it is the footprints of the Iouaridene dinosaurs that leave the visitor in the memory. Then the small road leaves the city and meanders between the Amazigh villages, between steep peaks and green valleys. In one of them, an unobtrusive Geopark sign draws attention to a large incline of red rocks that is constantly guarded by a warden. There were strange footprints with three large fingers spreading in straight lines in multiple directions. A little further there are large round tracks. The former belong to the carnivorous theropods and the latter to the herbivorous sauropods. With a little imagination, you can imagine these dinosaurs traversing a muddy terrain, leaving their footprints that miraculously lasted for 160 million years.
An economic engine for a neglected region
However, no hut, restaurant or café along the way, despite the tourist potential of the place. “Tourists just drive through the area, but don’t stop there” regrets Mohamed Chaouki, former teacher of SVT, who heads the Demnate Center for Environmental Education. Only certain locations could do well, such as the spectacular Ouzoud waterfalls. And despite the creation of the Geopark, the region remains one of the most disadvantaged in the country. Many young people prefer to emigrate to Casablanca, Marrakech or abroad.
“The region is much less developed than the coastal cities. We were left out. But for twenty years things have changed and the infrastructures are finally there, mainly thanks to the Geopark and then this jewel that is the new museum”, hopes Mohamed Boutakiout, President of the Scientific Council of the Geopark. A volunteer shared by Fatima Amagar: “ Beyond all its scientific interest, we want the museum to be an engine of economic development for the entire region. »
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The Unesco Geoparks
Under the auspices of Unesco, a global network of Geoparks was created in 2004. Supplemented by a label from the UN agency in 2015.
Today there are 195 Unesco Geoparks, in 48 countries.
According to UNESCO, these are “unique and unified geographical areas in which sites and landscapes of international geological importance are managed according to an integrated concept of protection, education and sustainable development”.
The UNESCO International Geoparks Conference, The fair, which takes place every two years, will take place in Marrakech at the beginning of September this year.
