Maghnia
Maghnia (formerly
Marnia) is a town in
Tlemcen,
wilaya, Northwestern
Algeria, near the border with
Morocco. It is known for
Treaty of Lalla-Marnia (
Treaty of Lalla Maghnia) (March 18, 1845) between
France (which ocupied Algeria at that time) and
Abderrahman, Sultan of Morocco, which established the boundaries between Algeria and Morocco.
Archeology discovered presence of prehistoric people in the area, followed by
Phoenicians. The remnants of burned down
Ancient Roman military post were discovered, occupied, according to the inscriptions, by a
numerus Syrorum, a unit of
Syrian
archers. The remnants of the post were discovered by the
French army in 1836, when they entered the area.
City of the Algerian West, depend on the wilaya (department) of Tlemcen. This place was occupied by the Romans before Jesus Christ, at which time it was called Numerus Syrorum. As of the age of prehistory, the site of Maghnia was occupied by significant human groups as quantities testify some to quarzites, basalts, sandstone, flints cut and wrought, collected on the territory of Maghnia and in its immediate surroundings "wadi Mouilah" It was a phenician establishment initially, then a station Roman, called, according to milliary columns NUMERUS SYRORUM or simply SYRORUM or SYR. the Romans established to it a military camp, surrounded by a broad and deep ditch, flanked square towers and where one entered by 4 doors. A great number of votive tumulary inscriptions or milliary columns, discoveries later and a thick layer of ashes, coals, remains found in all the surroundings, with depth with little meadows uniform, proved the existence of this Roman station, which had to be destroyed by a fire. Later, when the Roman domination had disappeared complement, the ramparts of old the castellum remained; from there, the name of "SOUR" (rampart) sometimes given by the autochtones to Maghnia and without relationship with the SYR of the Romans. A significant market of nomads is held regularly near the old Roman camp. Indeed, by its situation geometrical, in the center of a length and narrow corridor between Tlemcen and Fès and easily accessible, in addition, to the mountain dwellers of the south and to the inhabitants of the littoral, Maghnia could not miss being a significant place of exchanges. It was, par excellence, the place very indicated for the meetings of the tribes whose campings rose on all the surrounding territory. The plains were generally inhabited by wandering Arabs who devoted to the breeding of the sheep, the horses, the camels and with the culture of cereals, the little of time that the internal wars and plundering left them. They formed approximately 1/5 of the total population, Kabyles lived in the mountains. In certain places, they took the wandering practices of the Arabs, and almost everywhere, with the imitation of those, they were made a keen war. But they were industrieux, cultivated the ground with more care, raised cattle, planted trees as the immense orange groves testify some to Zegzel in Beni-snassen. It was in Maghnia that the followers of the two types of economy presented their products. Under the Arab domination the name of
Lalla-Maghnia was given to him. This name is that of a holy Moslem woman always venerated in the area including by most of the members of the Moroccan tribes of Angad. It was buried close to Maghnia. It is the of the same place where Kouba in which is still today, say the Arabs, it does not cease making miracles. This mausoleum does not offer anything partially artistic; it is Kouba in all that it has of more ordinary, It was high towards the end of the XVIIIe century. In 1836 at the time when the first French forwarding entered in Tlemcen, the ruins of the Roman military camp of Lalla-Maghnia were announced to the French officers. They were only 7 years after, in November 1843, which they were exploited by the Bedeau General accompanied by the commander Martimprey. It was at the time when the emir
Abd El-Kader had just taken refuge in Morocco.
Due to its convenient geographical loation — within the
watershed of
Wadi Tafna midway between
Fes and
Tlemcen (which was probably also the reason of placing the Roman post there), the place later served as a
marketplace for
nomads of the area.
Arabs named the place
Lalla Marnia (
Lalla Maghnia), after a local saint woman, buried in the vicinity. Her
mausoleum was built probably in 18th century.
The French have built a
redoubt in 1844 there, and the modern town grew arount it.
*
Ahmad ben Bella, the first
President of independent Algeria, was born in Maghnia in
1916.
*
Sid Ahmed Ghozali
