NÛL LAMTA - The lost city

Nearly a thousand years ago, the city of Nûl Lamta flourished due to the caravan trade, attracting merchants and travelers from all parts of the Almoravid Empire. Its wealth was so substantial that it minted its own gold coins.

However, like many cities and empires throughout history, its splendor gradually faded. Over time, history transformed it into legend, and legend into myth. For almost five hundred years, the exact location of this fabled city was lost, or nearly so. Yet, the inhabitants of Asrir have kept the legend alive, passing it down from father to son to this day.

Reconstruction of the map by the geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi, titled Tabula Rogeriana, drawn for Roger II of Sicily in 1154. The top of the map is oriented towards the south. The Arabic text was transcribed into the Latin alphabet by the German cartographer Konrad Miller. This reproduction is based on a late medieval copy (1300 or 1486).

Thanks to the Spanish-Moroccan archaeological research program in the Sub-Takna region, which began in 1995, we can now confirm that the lost city of Nûl Lamta lies beneath our feet in the oasis of Asrir, patiently awaiting its rediscovery.

“Nûl is a large city, populated and irrigated by a river that flows towards it from the east, with the Lamtûna and Lamta tribes settled along its banks […]. It is to this city that the people of these regions come for their essential needs and various affairs.”
(Al-Idrîsî, 12th century).