Several Unesco World Heritage sites have been severely damaged by the recent earthquake in Morocco.1

One of these affected “cultural assets” is the medieval medina in Marrakech, which was inscribed by Unesco as a world heritage site in 1985 (in 2009, it was added to the organisation's Intangible Cultural Heritage list). Following a two-hour assessment tour on Saturday of the 700-hectare area, with its network of narrow alleyways, Falt said: “it can already be said that the damage is much more significant than expected.”

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Speaking to The Art Newspaper, Falt said that credible reports indicate that the Tinmel mosque, located in the High Atlas Mountains, was also almost entirely destroyed. It is in the province of Al Haouz, where the epicentre of the earthquake was located and entire villages have been wiped out. The mosque, once a pilgrimage site, had been partly restored in the mid 20th century and again in the 1990s, and has been on Unesco's Tentative World Heritage list since 1995. Just seven months ago, a restoration project was initiated by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs that was to last 18 months and included plans for a new museum next to the site.2

• 1. “After a disaster like this, the most important thing is to preserve human lives,” Eric Falt, the regional director of the Unesco Office for the Maghreb, said on Saturday. The death toll from the 6.8-magnitude earthquake that struck late Friday night has climbed to 2,122 with 2,421 people injured people, according to Moroccan state television. But Falt stressed the importance of damage assessment and restoration of both tangible and intangible heritage, saying it is “necessary to immediately plan for the second phase, which will include the reconstruction of schools and cultural assets affected by the earthquake.” 
• 2. Falt added that Unesco hopes to soon send a team to assess the damage to the building. He also emphasised its importance, saying, “It’s a symbolic place in the history of Morocco because it was the starting point of the Almohad military campaigns against the Almoravid dynasty, at the beginning of the 12th century.” Almohad rulers were also buried in its vicinity and it was the site of the Almohads' last stand against the Marinids empire in 1275.