Tabiya: lime-and-gravel rammed earth of the Marrakesh walls
Tabiya: tapial de cal y grava de las murallas de Marrakech
- Date
- 1126 · confidence high
- Place
- Marrakesh, Marrakesh-Safi, Morocco
- Credited to
- Almoravid dynasty under Ali ibn Yusuf
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A rammed-earth wall of red clay, gravel and lime formwork-cast in sections, used for about 19 km of city walls and entire Maghreb towns. Lime stabilises the earth and reduces erosion, and its pink colour defines the city.
Rammed earth is older (Punic and Roman in North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula); Marrakesh's walls, begun around 1126-1127, are the best-dated monumental case. The present walls include Almohad and Saadian repairs.
What it led to
- earthen walls and kasbahs of the Maghreb and al-Andalus
- Almohad lime-crusted rammed earth
- a tradition Ibn Khaldun describes as a Maghrebi masonry technique