Lost places: The Aouli Mines

In the Drâa-Tafilalet region, the city of Midelt is not particularly well known among tourists. Only Moroccans who want to escape the summer heat or fans of geology come here.
The area is rich in minerals and semi-precious stones and apparently also the preferred landing site for meteorites from outer space.

About 25 km from Midelt is the mine of Aouli, which had its best times in the French colonial period. Lead was mined here between 1928 and 1960. Along the Moulouya River, which meanders through the mountains, several villages were built for the approximately 1000 miners, some of which are abandoned today.

The journey to this remote area is difficult because there is no public transport. Ilyass and I manage to get to the village 11 km away by taxi, then we have to walk.
The region is dotted with hills and mountains in orange to red soil and the ground is dry and dusty. Plastic bags have become entangled in some bushes and are wriggling in the wind.
The sun is already low in the sky, illuminating it in a deep red as we start our walk.
We are lucky and are taken by tuktuks to the settlement. We drive along narrow asphalt roads, now and then the road is so riddled with potholes that the driver prefers to drive just off the road.
When we arrive, it is already dark.
A dog barks.

We are welcomed by a local who offers us to spend the night in his flat. Ilyass talks to him briefly, we are invited for tea and extend the encounter to a joint dinner.

The flat is more sparsely furnished than I have ever experienced: everything is the simplest of the simple. Apart from the steel front door, there are no doors in the flat.
The plaster is peeling off the walls, there are water stains on the ceiling.
There is no electricity. When Aziz wants to charge devices, he drives to the village or buys batteries.
It is dark, the living room is lit only by two candles and we additionally light up the room with our headlamps.
This house used to be a cinema, he tells us, pointing to a hole in the wall through which we can glimpse the large empty cinema hall. Fine dust trickles from the ceiling and dances in the light of the lamp. We are sitting in the former projector room, now the living room.
On the wall are two shelves full of collected fossils, semi-precious stones and minerals. He sells them to tourists who come to this area from time to time.

The next morning we go to see the cinema hall and the town in daylight. Some of the abandoned houses are open and allow us to explore. The strong metal gates that protect doors and windows from flooding are striking. This did not help the cinema hall, where the water level must have risen 40 cm due to deposited mud.

On the nearby hill we find another settlement, which is completely abandoned. The only building still standing is the mosque, which interestingly has everything you need to pray immediately: even water for washing and a Koran.

At the end of our visit, we go into the old mine shaft, which leads straight into the mountain.

Afterthought:
I was told by a miner friend that you cannot easily walk down shafts , as the common shaft is a vertical hole. Consequently, I did not walk down a shaft, but along a gallery.

Good luck! 🍀⛏️👷‍♂️🕯️Read more