Post by MUKHTAR KEL GRES on Apr 5, 2019 16:19:49 GMT -5
Little Assode
When the nearby town of Assode (an hour by camel) was raided in the early 1900s, the local people did not rebuild. Instead they realized that without careful placement, there was a good chance it would happen again with the French pushing to keep control over the people. Since these villages were the home bases for the wandering tribe Kel Ayr, it needed to be for the first time in the nomads history, a secure location for fields and year round supplies. Long familiarity with the area told them there was nothing easy to move to. They set up a temporary tent home elsewhere while a group stayed behind to explore and search for another possibility. Included in the group was a pair of their craftsmen who pointed out the closer they were to one of the local mines the better off they could keep their secret. Agreeing to check out the possibility, they moved in that direction and captured a pair of frenchmen separated from their unit and near death from dehydration.
When they found out one of them was a master stone cutter back home, inspiration of a different sort soon hit them.
Helping both men recover, they took them to the mine where the french stone cutter was able to show them how to improve the mine. This particular mine was hard to get to and well hidden; it was unknown to other tribes in the Air and had only recently been started. In addition, the entrance required climbing to reach and was in a very deep bowl of stone, a pocket of stone like a small canyon. Communicating their idea to the main tribe, they arranged for warriors to capture the next military group of French they came across through silent night time raids and brought those men to this place under guard as well, amassing a large work force and gaining a few engineers as well over time. With this crowd, they improved the mine and began turning the stone excavated into large building blocks to build a new town, carefully planned out for the space they now had. The captives labored under ground expanding stone areas, building arches, and creating access for air. Polished copper reflectors were placed carefully to get sunlight reflected into the deepest areas. The prisoners stayed underground and were contained easily, especially after they tapped into an underground water source in the form of a small under ground water flow. Building cisterns and water collectors, soon there was a year round water supply for a large number of people as well as plenty for crops as well.
Above ground, very different plans were under way. Wanting to keep the grounds for cultivation, the captured engineers (now resigned to their new life and itching to use their skills) made holes up the cliff face and inserted poles, building homes straight up the cliff face four and five floors. At the third floor level a deep passage was cut into the stone and used as the 'street' for the above ground homes as well as air access and protection from the elements of the Sahara's hot days. The interiors of the buildings were only accessible from a few small entrances, further protecting them and keeping the homes cool and dry. Slowly as they expanded, people were brought back to the village in it's new placement, starting the fields new with the new water source. With secrecy now even more important, the village worked hard on hiding the entrance with a single small passageway entrance, big enough for a loaded camel and hidden behind a forest of stone pillars. Guards began monitoring the entrance as the tribe began finding itself awash in semi-precious stones and simple metals. They began trading for more metals and supplies and the craftsmen (now supplemented with french jeweler-trained skills as well) began to become the best jewelers in the confederation as well as skilled sword makers, a still much sought after skill. With their wandering ways across the desert now firmly based in a profitable and safe home base, they began to swell in numbers as the other Air tribes began to have locust and drought issues.
Fortunately, they had planned ahead before the bad bugs caught up to the fields. Along the base of the cliffs below the great rising cliff dwellings they had the traditional rounded dome homes of the Tuareg. These were for the bonded slave caste to live in and tend the fields and animals and every so many of these there are granaries carefully sealed to keep out the bugs. These rounded tower granaries are also where a few stairs to access the 'street' are hidden and carefully designed for defense. As well, a few turning wheels are located at the head points for irrigation above ground. These wheels pull water from the above ground cisterns into the fields and out a spigot for clean drinking water. Here they grow many things from date palms and fig trees, with magaria, millet, and ground cover vegetables also tended daily. Farther out and nearer the entrance are the animals in penned fields carefully divided between camels, donkeys (only a few), and goats, both milked to create cheeses and curds which the village enjoys. Camel and goat dung is collected and used in the underground fires for fuel as well as fertilizing the fields themselves each season. For secrecy's sake, fires and chimney and bellows for the metal smiths underground are only used at night both to combat the cold desert evenings and to prevent others from locating the village from smoke.
The entire settlement can hold and feed about twice as many as they have, but housing holds about 300 above ground with another two hundred below. As the below ground areas continue to expand this number will of course increase to match one day the food supply. Most of the smithing and crafting is done at night as well as hot meals and day time belongs to those tending the fields and animals as well as the villages' running. The top two floors of the cliff homes is reserved for the noble class in two level homes with vassal families having the bottom two floors along the walls. The middle or third floor areas are organized as holding space for the armory, trade goods, and meeting areas of the tribe. Marabouts (wise men and healers) are scattered in the various spaces available both above and below as their work is everywhere and their status controls where they get placed. Craftsmen are entirely underground with the remaining captives (the tribe has continued to add to their slaves in this area with any captured enemies and attackers in the desert) and a large slave population who continue to expand the rock work and home creation. The current chief engineer is working hard to keep arches and earthquake design as the strongest importance, going back over old work with the stone created from mining.