At first glance, passing by the lake of Iriqui (southern Morocco), one might think that it is an ordinary desert. However and in another life, the place was a real savannah. Indeed, Iriqui National Park is rich in history and even takes you on a journey through prehistory.
Direction due south, between the dry bed of the Drâa wadi and the Algerian border, 150 km from Ouarzazate and 80 km south-west of Zagora. With its 123,000 hectares, Iriqui National Park spreads over two provinces, that of Zagora and Tata. The place was created in 1994. It includes, among others, the lake of Iriqui, Foum Zguid and M’hamid. It is characterized by a strong presence of southern gazelles (dorcas gazelles).
“It’s a very touristy area, frequented by visitors who make the desert circuit through Merzouga, Zagora and M’hamid Ghizlaine,” explains Yabiladi Sidi Imad Cherkaoui, ornhitologist and professor at Moulay Ismaïl University.
After the construction of the Mansour Eddahbi dam in Ouarzazate towards the end of the 1960s, “the wetland of Iriqui dried up”, since the Oued fed the lake. Now the latter is “permanently dry”. The professor adds that the ecosystem has disappeared. Therefore, one of the goals of creating this park “is to replenish it” in addition to “rehabilitating desert wildlife.”
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Iriqui National Park is characterized by a strong presence of southern gazelles (dorcas gazelles) / Ph. Sidi Imad Cherkaoui
Several nesting birds have “disappeared” such as the pintail and the flamingo. From now on, if you go to the site, you can see a multitude of desert species: “The Houbara bustard, the Egyptian nightjar, the ascalaphic eagle-owl, the Lichtenstein sandgrouse, the desert warbler and the White sparrow”, adds the specialist. In the park, wildlife is in decline, such as the Dorcas gazelle, which nevertheless characterizes the Iriqui National Park. Our specialist explains:
“At the time, there was the striped hyena that was reported. Until the last century, there were also Nile crocodiles in certain areas of the Draa (which disappeared around the 1950s). They retreated towards Mauritania. Recently, there was the discovery of the sand cat in the Auserd area.
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The Egyptian Nightjar very present in Iriqui National Park / Ph. Sidi Imad Cherkaoui
Cave painting and transhumance
Iriqui National Park is notably a place of incredible richness in prehistory, thanks to the presence of cave paintings, works of art created by man on the walls of caves. Abdelkhalek Lamjidi, an archaeologist specializing in prehistory and human and space studies in southern Morocco, explains to Yabiladi what the richness of this place consists of: “The paleolake of Iriqui [Lac d’une époque géologique ancienne dont les traces sont encore détectables, ndlr] contains about ten cave paintings. In Morocco it is very rare.
According to the official, at the level of the kingdom, the park contains “1/3 of the prehistoric riches of Morocco, since throughout the national territory, we have about thirty cave paintings”:
“We don’t have an exact dating, but the subjects drawn in these rock shelters represent a culture that goes back at least to the Neolithic period. That is to say, we are talking about 6e7e millennium BC. AD and it goes back to Amazigh writing. The presence of people who lived around Lake Iriqui, for those who produce, who did not live from hunting, dates back at least 9,000 years. When we talk about hunters, it is counted in hundreds of thousands of years, up to 800,000 / 900,000 years.
Due to the mass tourism that passes through the national park, the archaeological traces are in danger. “In lithic form, the tools dating from prehistory have suffered exhaustion due to wild and illegal collections by tourists and locals,” regrets Abdelkhalek Lamjidi.
Since the mid-1990s, the prehistorian has been working in the region and given the intense vandalism, instead of picking up “25 pieces per square meter, there are now barely five to six pieces per ten square meters”. The specialist adds: “We have lost a lot of information on the Paleolithic life of this place. But fortunately, there are local associations that pay attention to this kind of thing and save what they can.
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Iriqui National Park, a desert as far as the eye can see. / Ph. DR
Transhumance continues to characterize the park. Indeed, nomads continue today to live in synergy with nature, to move with their livestock:
“Jbel Bani stretches from the Algerian border in the east to Tan Tan in the southeast. It constitutes a wall which is practically 1200/1300 km long. It forms a double corridor. On one side that of Draâ, and on the other, Tata, Tissit, to reach Zagora. These two topographic corridors were used by men in prehistoric times, who lived by hunting and following the fauna. Lake Iriqui was a center where many animals lived, like a kind of African savannah.