It became a tourist attraction .. The story of the most famous underground prison in Morocco

Sanaa Kouiti - Morocco

Standing in the square opposite the Dome of Ambassadors in the Moroccan city of Meknes does not realize that under the feet of one of the most mysterious and fearful Moroccan prisons .. The visitor descends to imprison an underground continent through narrow staircases, darkness damaged the place only from thin strands of sunlight infiltrating modestly through holes in the ceiling To give the place an aura of awe.

It is an open prison with no doors and no cells, designed in a rectangular shape, and is divided into three large halls, each with a huge array of arches and pillars.

Tourist attraction
The confinement of a continent, the basement, the Ismaili or the vestibule are all names for this place, and tales and rumors about it have been reproduced, and legends that continue to haunt it have been woven to this day.

The historic 18th-century prison has become a tourist attraction that attracts foreigners before Moroccans. Visitors need only ten dirhams ($ 1) to experience an incomparable experience of dazzling feelings of fear and grief for those whose fate led them to be buried alive in hell. Underground.

The figures obtained by Al Jazeera Net from the Ministry of Culture reveal that visitors to this historic prison reached about 43 thousand visitors during the first eight months of 2018 compared to 39 thousand visitors in 2017, and that the income of the teacher estimated in 2018 about 43 thousand dirhams (about 4400 dollars).

Miserable prisoners
The continent's prison was built during the reign of Sultan Moulay Ismail, who ruled Morocco between 1672 and 1727. According to Moroccan historian Abdelhak Taheri, this Alawite sultan took Meknes as his capital and ordered the construction of the Ismaili Kasbah (palace of government), comprising various facilities, including a basement. Land above the Dome of Ambassadors.

According to the regional director of the Ministry of Culture in Fez and Meknes, Rachid Bouzidi of the island Net, the ambassadors' dome is one of the most important Ismaili monuments in Meknes, a square-shaped hall with a pyramid roof covered with green tiles. Sultan Ismail received ambassadors and foreign missions visiting the capital city of Meknes at the time.

While the Sultan was greeting his guests in the dome above the ground, the prisoners underneath were littering the land and living miserable days without hope of a breakthrough.Tahiri probably believed that the basement was initially built as a storehouse of supplies in times of crisis, especially as the Sultan fought wars against tribes outside his authority.

He added that the warehouse was then turned into a prison for his opponents and the perpetrators of major crimes and prisoners. "What confirms that this basement was performing another function that in different periods after the period of Ismail Ismail became a storehouse of supplies."

Certificates
Taheri conveys the testimony of a French prisoner named Moet, who was a prisoner at the beginning of Sultan Ismail's reign, in which he spoke of the difficult conditions he lived in prison and how they worked all day long until their bodies were exhausted under the supervision of harsh guards who intend to abuse them.

Moroccan historian Abderrahmane Ben Zidane, who died in 1946, wrote about this prison in his book "Ithaf the flags of the people in the beauty of the news of the Meknes metropolis." He said, "It was one of the prisons set for prisoners and other great criminals, they stay at night and go out during the day to serve." Serving by day and making them imprisoned at night is what French colonialism does with the inmates of the inhabitants as if it were taken from the act of Mawla Ismail. "

Strange stories
The researchers differed in determining the origin of the name of the continent prison, there are those who say that he carries the name of a Portuguese prisoner and promised him Sultan Ismail Ismail freedom if he could build a strong basement underground, while others attribute the origin of the name to the French protection period when the colonial took him a prison for the people and his guard Ding, he knew The prison as such after its misrepresentation that the French do not speak the letter of the eye became a continent, but Abdelhak Taheri is likely to be a prison named after the Portuguese prisoner.

According to Taheri, the continent had no door to enter when it was built, and that the prisoners were descending through a ladder of ropes from a large hole near the dome of ambassadors, and that from the same hole enters light, air and food.

Ibn Zaidan described the durability and magnitude of the construction in his book on the period of Sultan Ismail's accession to the throne. The same mind of the night and the outskirts of the day, but made it the gardens with trees and beans and became watered with water every time did not affect him anything mentioned, this construction is known today imprisonment of a continent.

The people of Meknes have been circulating strange and exaggerated stories about this place, and they deliberate verbal accounts of its borders that extend to the city of Taza, and that the prison was able to accommodate 40 thousand prisoners, at a time when some talk about the disappearance of a number of visitors in its complex labyrinths and the anxious lives of prisoners still You inhabit it and scream every night inside it.

Taheri attributes the circulation of the stories to the secrecy surrounding the place, and says that the news out of prison is few because his prisoners are not included in the release or pardon, and that the lack of information stimulates the imagination and speculation.

Deteriorating condition
Rachid Bouzidi tells Al Jazeera Net that the total area of ​​this prison is 8931 square meters, while the Dome of Ambassadors, where he was receiving the Sultan Ambassadors area up to 289 square meters.

The imprisonment of Qarah is classified as an antiquity according to a decree issued in March 1918.According to Bouzidi, the Dome of Ambassadors and Qarah Prison in the past period had some minor repairs, but still require restoration covering all the damaged places as well as a maintenance program.

He pointed to the need to take urgent precautionary measures for the prison surface to stop the leakage of rain water inside, repair the damaged places and the restoration of the floor and the program of restoration and consolidation project, and rehabilitation of both the dome of ambassadors and the prison of the continent according to specific technical and scientific standards.