06/11/2025
🤍 OASIS CAMPUS M'HAMID 2019
With the new opportunity to return for a new OASIS CAMPUS in 2026 to the ksar of Ouled Youssef, we recall the restoration works of the marabout shrine of Sidi Abdullah Khalifa. One of the most challenging restoration projects we have undertaken during two Oasis Campus in 2019, thanks to the work of: the local master builders Bouchaib Bourhim, Abdelkader Ahssane, Brahim Banhman, Lahsan Kuidr, Hosine Karoumi and Saaid Gahmini, ten young apprentices from Ouled Youssef itself, our regular partner, the maalem (master builder) Abdelkader Mahassine, the 38 participants coming from different backgrounds and from all around the world, the ArCHIAM team and funding from and .
"The simplicity and delicacy of the shrine’s forms reflect the know-how of the masters who built it over a century ago. The mud, wood and lime covering the domes were skillfully molded so as to create one of the oasis’s finest architectures. Its five stepped paraboloids gleam amid the green of the palm groves and constitute a landmark overlooking the countryside by the turreted walls of the two neighboring ksur."
The marabout is one of the oasis’s finest and most remarkable buildings, as well as a site appreciated and venerated by local people. It is the resting place of the holy man after whom it is named: Sidi Abdullah Khalifa, who is still renowned as he must have been in life as a spiritual guide and healer, especially of mental ailments.
Detail drawings from
