How Morocco became the capital of fishing in the world

In the world I noticed that most of the famous meteorite show, at Ensisheim in France, noticed that there are many merchants from Morocco. Unlike most Europeans and Americans – who had display, marks and books – Moroccan kiosks were minimal. Perhaps a white sheet covered with red brown rocks. A pair of standards. Sometimes a piece of paper with prices per kilo in Peru. Only in England returned from the desert golden rush.

Since 1999, the number of meteorites in Morocco has exploded. The officially recognized number exceeds a thousand – although this is described as “less than the total.” For comparison, the UK has only 23 waterfalls and discovery.

“You must talk to our harsna,” a merchant, Daril Pitt, wrote to me. “I have tried – and I have succeeded to some extent – to move the chaos of North Africa’s meteorite into something more organized.” This was not the first time that her name appeared.

Hasnaa Chennaoui Aoudjehane, a professor at Hasan II University in Casablanca, is used to be strangers in the room. In meetings Meteorological Association The Niles Coames Committee, the group in charge of the officially recognized nomination, was, when she was a member, “the unique actress from any Arab or Muslim country.” (She is still a counselor for the committee) and says: “The situation with Moroccan meteorites is crazy.” “This is immoral.”

Near the end of the last century, several factors combined to make Morocco a hot point for Nazia. First, climate and geography. Allow the difference in the total surface area, meteorites are likely to land in the heights in Scotland as in the desert, but in the past it will be very difficult to find – Heather, rocks – and “smooth” will be more quickly – rain, clay, snow. Most (and if not all) they reach the ground with exteries darker fusion crust. In the desert such rocks stand out against sand.

Second, Morocco had already had a network of fishermen, fossil merchants, metal and archaeological, while many Moroccan – members of Bedouin groups in particular – were very skilled in the search for rocks and antiques in the desert. When I walked with my flock, I looked at the Earth, ”one of the Bedouins made it clear to a journalist from the Ain of the Middle East. He said that the stone works had saved many Bedouin families from poverty.

Third, the legal and geopolitical situation in Morocco helped matters. “We, praise be to God, a peaceful country,” says Chennaiwi. “It is a unique thing in the area.” From here (relatively) is safe to wander around the desert sands that are looking for stones. Moreover, there was no list dedicated to the country. If you find a meteorite in Morocco, it may be about you as you liked.

American agent Michael Gilmer puts the beginning of the golden rush in the desert in the mid -1990s. Foreign merchants have quickly discovered that non -classified meteorites from Moroccan merchants can be bought at very low prices, officially analyzed in the West, and sold to make a great profit.

The town of Irfoud in the Moroccan region, southeast of Tafilalett lessons, known as the “Desert Gate”, has become a center for those who hope to earn money from meteorites. The visitor will find stores that sell meteorites and excavations, some with small custom museums. Some of the Bedouins diversified the removal of tourists and their collectors into the desert to search for stones.