- To visit one of the most famous monuments on Earth

- is an ordinary experience.

- But when the monument is under the surface of the Earth,

- the visit will then have a special taste.

- The Sidi El-Hadj Mohammed mosque was founded in 1930

- by the great Sheikh

- Sidi Mohammed Ben Bahous, one of the Uled Sidi Cheikh,

- famous for his mysticism and mercy.

- He left that monument,

- which became a zauia bearing the name of Zauia of the Almohads.

- He dug the Hassi and this mosque.

- He dug it in the underground as you can see

- and he provided them with places where

- students could study and where people would pray and read caselaw, and so on.

- This mosque was conceived in conformity

- with the measures of the architecture of ancient Muslim mosques,

- for prayer and the teaching of the Quran

- and the principles of the translation of Islam

- and of the 4 schools:

- Chaykhiyya, Qadiriyya Tijaniyya and Taybiyya,

- as explained by the sheikh of the zauia.

- In 1954,

- the students at the zauia climbed up the mountain to defend their country,

- And there were students that had graduated from this mosque after the independence?

- Yes there were,

- and we, for instance, came back in 1964,

- we came here and we restored

- the zauia and the mosque.

- From that time till now, students have come to tell the Quran.

- Do the Zauia maintain its activity ?

- Yes, it does,

- such as moral education and spirituality.

- This mosque played a major role

- as it sheltered the great revolution of the liberation

- to follow its same activity after independence

- in the teaching of

- Sunnite principles of the Muslim tradition

- and to thus be an archeological monument that enriches the region.