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Concept
Anti-Atlas
Summary
The Anti-Atlas (الأطلس الصغير, Aṭlas Mẓẓiyn), also known as Lesser Atlas or Little Atlas, is a mountain range in Morocco, a part of the Atlas Mountains in the northwest of Africa. The Anti-Atlas extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the southwest toward the northeast, to the heights of Ouarzazate and further east to the city of Tafilalt, altogether a distance of approximately 500 km. The range borders on the Sahara to the south.
In some contexts, the Anti-Atlas is considered separate from the Atlas Mountains system, as the prefix "anti" (i.e. opposite) implies.
The summits of the Anti-Atlas reach average heights of , with a few peaks reaching higher. To the north lies a plateau at 1700–1800 m in height. To the south lie the Sahara highlands at approximately 700 m. On the heights of Ouarzazate, the massif is cut through by the Draa valley, opening towards the south. The range is strongly fissured, particularly in a southerly direction.
The Anti-Atlas area is a traditionally Berber region, inhabited by the Chleuh group. It is sparsely inhabited and there are no large cities in the area. The main town is Tafraoute, which has been described as "Morocco's Berber heartland". There are cave paintings in certain areas of the range.
The eastern prolongation of the Anti-Atlas is the Jbel Saghro range. The Jbel Sirwa is its northern prolongation, connecting with a section of the High Atlas range. The summit of Jbel Sirwa, of volcanic origin, reaches 3304 m. The Jbel Bani is a much lower range running along the southern side of the Anti Atlas.
The basement rock of Africa (the African plate) was formed in the Precambrian (approximately 450 to 550 million years ago), and is much older than the Atlas mountains. The Anti-Atlas range developed even later.
A fraction of the Avalonia microcontinent, the Anti-Atlas range formed in the Paleozoic ( 300 million years ago), as a result of continental collisions. North America, Europe and Africa were connected as part of two former continents, Euramerica and Gondwana, which ground against one another to create the former Central Pangean Mountains.
Official source
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