Explore the Unique Merzouga History

Details of Merzouga history are unlike any other historical account of a global travel destination. This is mainly because Merzouga isn't a proper city or town but essentially a sand-covered village with a sparse population. There are no detailed accounts of Merzouga’s early inhabitants. Strangely, even during the long period of French rule in Morocco, Merzouga never witnessed any landmark developments. The daunting terrains of Merzouga are responsible for taking away a typical historical description, but less traditional records remain.

Pre-historic Merzouga History

Merzouga occupies a special mention in the archaeological surveys in North Africa. It is a popular site to hunt fossils, and some of the fossilized remains extracted from the deserts are a few thousand years old. Merzouga is believed to be a residence of Mosasaur, an early dinosaur whose teeth have been recovered from the deserts.

Merzouga History & African Landscape

Merzouga also offers an unusual historic account in terms of explaining the formation, spreading and eventual shrinking of the Sahara Desert. This is primarily due to the series of ergs found here. Each erg is essentially a sand dune formed from a previously existing sea or ocean. An erg is typically devoid of any kind of vegetation. The most popular erg in Merzouga is Chebbi, or the Saharan erg, which provides an insight into how the Sahara Desert spread across North Africa. The details yielded by these ergs span across the history of our planet. Some of these ergs are more than 150 meters tall and 4 kilometers wide, dating back to the period before the creation of human life.