Chronology

The 8 September 2023 Al Haouz earthquake (M6.8) causes significant damage across the High Atlas region, including to multiple kasbahs and earthen heritage sites. Aït Ben Haddou and Kasbah Taourirt sustain damage; many smaller and undocumented sites suffer more severe losses. Conservation activity intensifies in the months following, with renewed institutional attention to the seismic vulnerability of the southern Moroccan earthen vernacular.

The Getty Conservation Institute and CERKAS launch an integrated Conservation and Rehabilitation Plan for Kasbah Taourirt, combining emergency stabilisation, full architectural documentation through photogrammetry and HBIM, archival and oral history research, and the development of conservation policies intended to be transferable to the broader southern Moroccan corpus. CIMS Carleton joins as the digital documentation partner.

The four Mauritanian ksour are inscribed together as a single UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognising their role as medieval centres of trans-Saharan trade and Islamic scholarship and their status as living historic towns. ICOMOS recommended deferring the inscription as premature; the recommendation was overruled.

CERKAS — the Centre de Conservation et de Réhabilitation du Patrimoine Architectural des Zones Atlasiques et Subatlasiques — is established under the Moroccan Ministry of Culture and headquartered at Kasbah Taourirt in Ouarzazate, with a mandate covering the conservation and rehabilitation of the High Atlas and pre-Saharan architectural heritage.

The ksar of Aït Ben Haddou is inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the first Moroccan earthen heritage site to receive World Heritage status. CERKAS is identified in the inscription dossier as the body responsible for monitoring the property.

The Pentapolis of Ghardaïa, Beni Isguen, Bounoura, El Atteuf, and Melika in Algeria's M'Zab Valley is inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the earliest major Saharan-Maghreb earthen heritage listing.