Sijilmasa

Sijilmasa

Arabic: سجلماسة
Sijilmasa ruins
Shown within Morocco
Location	Rissani, Drâa-Tafilalet, Morocco
Region	Errachidia
Coordinates	31°17′N 4°17′W / 31.28°N 4.28°W / 31.28; -4.28
Type	Settlement
History
Founded	757 A.D.[1]
Abandoned	1393 A.D.
Cultures	Berber, Arab
Site notes
Excavation dates	1988–1996[2]
Archaeologists	World Monuments Fund
Ownership	Moroccan Ministry of Culture

Sijilmasa (Arabic: سجلماسة; also transliterated Sijilmassa, Sidjilmasa, Sidjilmassa and Sigilmassa) was a medieval Moroccan city and trade entrepôt at the northern edge of the Sahara in Morocco. The ruins of the town extend for five miles along the River Ziz in the Tafilalt oasis near the town of Rissani. The town's history was marked by several successive invasions by Berber dynasties. Up until the 14th century, as the northern terminus for the western trans-Sahara trade route, it was one of the most important trade centres in the Maghreb during the Middle Ages.^[3]