Destinations: Gateway to Africa

A millennium ago, a traveler—most likely a pilgrim en route to Mecca—arrived in the Red Sea port city of Ayla (now Aqaba, Jordan) carrying a purse filled with 32 gold coins. Perhaps anticipating trouble from the Bedouin raiders who periodically threatened the city, the traveler buried his coins. When University of Chicago archaeologists came upon this cache nine years ago, they discovered that 29 of the coins came from the distant, fabled city of Sijilmasa in modern Morocco.

The site of ancient Sijilmasa, in a region of harsh, desiccated plains 430 miles southeast of Casablanca, was once a booming oasis town controlling one of the world’s great trade routes. Its mint produced beautiful golden dinars that made their way from north Africa to southern France and Spain and were even exchanged as far north as Russia.