Until yesterday, the only pesky creatures in Marrakesh's Djemà el-Fna square were the snakes and monkeys that tourists take pictures with. But in the morning from Friday to Saturday this vast space – intangible heritage of humanity since 2001 –, usually full of street games, food stalls, animated storytellers and acrobats, women who paint with henna or merchants of all kinds of products , it looked like a refugee camp, with nervous people who had left their homes or hotels and were moving from side to side, to avoid getting close to the tallest buildings. "Most of them went to spend the night in the Kutubia gardens," Mohamed el-Masaoudi, who serves tourists at an excursion agency right next to the square, explains by phone.
The city's famous Palmerar also hosted hundreds of people, who spent the night there fearing that there would be new aftershocks of the earthquake, "much announced by rumours, although they did not happen afterwards", points out Carlos Varona, director of the Cervantes Institute in Marrakesh.
Despite the fact that the most affected area has been that of the villages of the Atlas - where the so-called Moroccan Hollywood is located and where Californian blockbusters are shot -, in Marrakesh the witnesses collected by this newspaper - also with photos and videos - describe, in the emblematic 11th century square, groups of people crying or in similar distress, as well as, inside the medina, some cars buried in rubble and some fallen walls.
The minaret of an old mosque on one side of the square has been blown away, as if it were the twin tower of the place and, due to the fall, it has caused injuries to two people. Although there is still no data on the material damage caused to the cultural heritage, the terror seen on the faces of many tourists suggests a decline in this important source of income for the country.
"It all started at 11:10 p.m. - remembers Varona - at first I thought it was an attack, a bomb, it sounded just like a deflagration, I looked to see the fire, it looked like the noise of a crashed plane" .
The director of the Cervantes Institute in the city - which, when he was stationed in India, already suffered from the devastating earthquake in Nepal in 2015 - clarifies that, "despite the fact that the earthquake was very strong, the modern buildings, such as now the Cervantes headquarters or his house, have not been affected, except for fallen objects and occasional breaks. Those that have suffered a huge impact are the Berber villages of the Atlas that were close to the epicenter, 60 km south of Marrakech. You can't see any major damage around the city, some minarets fell, but the monuments, such as the Ben Youssef madrassa, are standing, apart from a few cracks". El-Masaoudi certifies that the palace of the Bay, "next to his house", does not seem to have been damaged either, while, on the other hand, several sections of the Red Walls have indeed collapsed.
From the most affected area, Aadi Abdessalam, who works as a tourist guide in the ksar (fortified city) of Ait Ben Hadu, answers La Vanguardia's call. "My house has completely collapsed - he laments - we were very lucky because the whole family was at a wedding celebration, and this saved our lives". So they slept in the open air, in natural spaces known to viewers around the world since Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves was filmed there in 1954, and later Lawrence of Arabia, 007 arrived: High tension, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Mummy, Babel, the series Game of Thrones, Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra or the two parts of Gladiator, among many others.
Less than ten families live in this archivally famous village, which have never had electricity or water and count on tourists and film crews as a source of income. There are those who have been extras in some of these legendary productions.
"But this is not a movie. A couple of houses have completely collapsed - continues Abdessalam - although the people are fine, we all sleep in the open air, five families together on this side of the river. And, well, today the tourists came again and we showed them the places".
- How? Have tourists come quietly, despite the earthquake?
- Yes, specifically two groups of Poles.
Only 30 kilometers away is Uarzazat, one of the most affected areas, which is home to several film studios, such as Atlas, one of the largest in the world, with its 150 hectares of sets.
In Marrakesh, if the tower in the square has fallen, the nearby mosque of the Kutubia and its 77-meter minaret – which was the inspiration for the Giralda in Seville – is standing, but it has suffered damage that is yet to be qualified, as pedestrians testify that they saw a cloud of smoke coming out of the minaret. "There is a door that has indeed been affected - says El-Masaoudi after passing through it - it was from the 12th to the 13th century". The entire medina, or old town, of Marrakesh - one of the most imposing in Africa - has been inscribed on the Unesco world heritage list since 1985.
More minor damage: A few palm trees have fallen in the Palm Grove, another major tourist attraction with more than 100,000 trees watered by a sophisticated system of wells and canals, along 16,000 hectares. Another emblematic building, such as the Yves Saint Laurent Museum, in the Majorelle Gardens, has withstood the earthquake.
