The Mysterious Megalithic Circle of Mzoura
Consisting of one hundred and sixty-seven standing stones forming a circle with a diameter of around sixty meters, the ancient site near the rural village of Mzoura has fascinated and puzzled historians for decades. Locals believe that it was the grave of a Mauritanian king dating back to around 3000 BC, but some researchers point to the distinctive similarities between the stone circle of Mzoura and megalithic sites found in Britain, France and Ireland, suggesting those sites and the Moroccan site were erected by a group with the same cultural beliefs.
The use of a Pythagorean right angled triangle of the ratio 12, 35, 37 to construct the ellipse is the same technique used in the British stone ellipses construction. Moreover, it is evident that the megalithic yard was used in both the British sites and the site at Mzoura. While previously it may have been difficult for researchers to pinpoint the ruins of the Mzoura, with the aid of GPS, Google Earth and researched information, history enthusiast Graham Salisbury, has managed to pinpoint the ancient megalithic circle as detailed on his blog “Re-discovery of Moroccan Megalithic Stone Circle”.
The term ‘megalith’ is taken from the Greek words megas (great) and lithos (stone), and is used to describe a large stone used to construct a monument, either as a single stone, possibly carved into a shape, or together with other stones where they are put together without the use of cement or mortar. One of the most famous megalithic structures is Stonehenge in the United Kingdom, but megaliths and megalithic structures are found in a number of places in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Mzoura lies in the Settat Province of Morocco’s Chaouia-Ouardigha region, around 11 km from Asilah. Getting to the site is challenging as it is remote with only a very rough road leading to it. The only proper survey to be conducted of the sight was reportedly carried out by James Watt Mavor Jr. of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute based in Massachusetts, USA, in the 1970s, but this survey was enough to determine that Mzoura was noteworthy from an historical point of view, and may be connected to the sites in Britain.
