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Cemetery at Ighil'n'Ogho, Morocco
A silent walk through the abandoned Jewish cemetery of Ighil’n'Ogho reveals human bones, shattered graves, and one remarkably intact headstone in Hebrew. The village is located in the Talouine region of southern Morocco and once had a large Jewish population. Many of the local Jews were merchants and itinerant peddlers – often of saffron, a regional specialty.
Description
Ighil n'Ogho History: Ighil n’Ogho was the central mellah in the Talouine region (Zagmouzen tribe) in southern Morocco, dating back to the sixteenth century, possibly even earlier.1 It is estimated to have had around 350 inhabitants during the twentieth century, due to a 1936 census indicating 240 Jews living in the region, as well as the findings in this cemetery that is 1.2 miles away from the mellah (an established Jewish quarter, named after the salt marsh area in Fez where the first mellah was created2) (see here).3 The Jews of Ighil n’Ogho held an array of occupations from jewelers to blacksmiths and cobblers to saddlers. The main languages they spoke were Judeo-Arabic and Berber. The centuries-old Jewish community fragmented, as the majority of the Jews migrated to Israel in 1963.4
Video Tour: This tour begins at the oldest end of the cemetery, where what seems to have once been a small ritual room now shows evidence of local Amazigh (Berber) women’s ablutions; the women wash themselves inside in the superstitious hope of getting pregnant. Note the clothing, water-jugs, and even plastic soap bottles scattered throughout the cemetery.
Ighil n'Ogho - Abandoned Jewish Cemetery in Morocco
Moving beyond this ritual “room,” what appear to be random rocks are actually grouped into clumps marking centuries-old graves. Smaller clumps may indicate the graves of children. Newer and better preserved graves — made of concrete — become visible as the tour heads toward the main road leading into the village.
![Ighil’n’Ogho Cemetery, Graves [4] (Ighil’n’Ogho, Morocco, 2010)](https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/Wnsc8sz8RIKz9MxBnnUQ/convert?w=100&h=100&fit=crop)
![Ighil’n’Ogho Cemetery, Graves [3] (Ighil’n’Ogho, Morocco, 2010)](https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/Fzcl5HkMQuSBCewgB5Aw/convert?w=100&h=100&fit=crop)
![Ighil’n’Ogho Cemetery, Graves [2] (Ighil’n’Ogho, Morocco, 2010)](https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/BrMVvceQFOqbwuUw1Xle/convert?w=100&h=100&fit=crop)
![Ighil’n’Ogho Cemetery, Graves [1] (Ighil’n’Ogho, Morocco, 2010)](https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/0puiQpLSgyVZaRMZALoS/convert?w=100&h=100&fit=crop)
Sources
[1] Yossef Chetrit, “Ighil n'Ogho,” In Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, ed. Norman A. Stillman (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill), Accessed 20 July 2021.
[2] Emily Gottreich, “Mallāḥ,” in Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, ed. Norman A. Stillman, (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill), Accessed 20 July 2021.
[3] Chetrit, “Ighil n'Ogho."
[4] Chetrit, “Ighil n'Ogho."
[Video] DiarnaInfo. "Ighil n'Ogho - Abandoned Jewish Cemetery in Morocco." YouTube. February 5, 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvid8CwQhpk&ab_channel=DiarnaInfo.