"Borders" or lack thereof

"In the Treaty of Lalla Maghnia (March 18, 1845), which set the border between French Algeria and Morocco, it is stipulated that 'a territory without water is uninhabitable and its boundaries are superfluous' the border is delineated over only 165 km.Beyond that there is only one border area, without limit, punctuated by tribal territories attached to Morocco or Algeria."

I think that every map I've seen here in Morocco of Morocco shows the southern and eastern borders with Algeria as a dotted line that just abruptly stops or no line at all. It always amused me and I thought to myself "well, that's just about how 'exact' everything is around here..." I didn't give too much thought as to WHY all these Moroccan maps lacked clear and concise border demarcations.

Today! I stumbled on the answer.... at least more of an answer than I have ever had before. I found out about something called the "Sand War," which was a border war in 1963. Amazingly, I didn't even know that this war took place practically in my own backyard, specifically with the city of Figuig. (I spent last new years in Figuig, see photos below)

A border conflict was inevitable because the French, when they occupied both Morocco and Algeria, didn't do a good job of defining the borders. To them, this was not an international border issue- it was all basically the same-- desert and oases and desert again. Or as is quoted above, an area "uninhabitable and superfluous" (You'd be surprised!) Then they found Magnesium and other phosphates and the land became a bit more important. (My city has a large old Magnesium mine, abandoned by the French) Their lack of creating a solid border led to conflicts after both Morocco and Algeria became independent, in 1956 and 1962 respectively.

I invite you to look at the following maps of Morocco: (unfortunately only one actually has the dotted line I referred to. I'm not surprised that all the disappearing-border maps of Morocco I see around here--including the map on my wall-- are not to be found in google inquiries.)
- Keep an eye on Erfoud, in Maps 1, 2, and 4. And look at the town of Tata (Southern Morocco, before the W. Sahara) in maps 3 and 4.

Though I couldn't find much information on the borders and their placements, (Someone needs to apply for a Fulbright and figure this out...) Here's an Economist article from 2010 talking about the opening of the border, closed since 1994. Now, you didn't hear it from me, but it is quite a porous border and I have personally experienced benefits from that (No, I didn't jump over there) but I won't name them here. http://www.economist.com/node/16219845


And now, a few photos from my trip to Figuig, the border land, over New Years 2010/2011. I can't believe these are already almost a year old!

Algeria lies between those two mountains in the distance.

That's the border. We rode our bikes all the way up to it. There was guard tower a few hundred yards to the right of this shot.

Hanging over the border (maybe?) and a dry river bed. I was really high up and this took some guts.

Here's a link to the rest of my Figuig photos from last New Years
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.669639889319.2227855.18806879&type=1&l=727aef6f46