Talk:Atlas Mountains

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I don't know but i think Atlas Mountains is the most highest in morocco -.-

The other map[edit]

Map showing the location of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco

I think that two maps are too many for a small stub like this. --tyomitch 21:44, 19 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Oh give it a break you bore! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.219.117.249 (talk) 23:29, 21 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Atlas mountains a part of atlantis?[edit]

It turns out these two links say it was a part of atlantis. This map say europe was a strip of continents that lined africa as well...no suprise to me, since geologists still wont admit there is a tectonic plate that lines africa on the north pole. Yep, the atlas mountains were on the bottom of Daitya, now the faroe islands. America was in the pacific. Asia was on top of the world. Dont believe me...check out these links then. 1 2 3. Plato's atlantis turned out to be daitya and the atlas mountains split in two during 85k years ago to now. Atlantis was 850,000-85000 years in age. Just proves land never really changes it just moves around. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Asfd666 (talk • contribs) 13:22, 9 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Text removed from article—restoration with elaboration or explanation may make sense.[edit]

Removed this text: "The Atlas ancient. It also plays an important role in Greek mythology."

Is this saying the Atlas mountainss are ancient? Is so, I'd suggest a more specific geologic comment.

Is this a suggestion that the origin of of the name Atlas mountains comes from Greek mythology? If so, please expalin how they link (perhaps Carthaginians?).

Thanks - Williamborg 00:36, 10 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

See Atlas (mythology)#Variations. :NikoSilver: 15:59, 27 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Merge proposal[edit]

I propose that the High Atlas article be merged into this article, Atlas Mountains, as all the information mentioned in High Atlas is mentioned here. Moreover, here is a section on the Moroccan Atlas (which includes the High Atlas), maybe the place to talk about different aspects of the High Atlas. --User:AAM | Talk 19:22, 19 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • Oppose - Better to build the content of the High Atlas article than to arbitrarily merge it. Remember that the Wikipedia is built around a database structure—that is its strength—one can have multiple linked articles—and it should. Let's add material on the High Atlas! Williamborg 02:24, 20 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
A quick look at the German site and the French site show you that there is a great deal of material to be added to the High Atlas.
Keep Wikipedia Weird. Wikipedia is about adding useful material! Resist the efforts of the folks who would prune when they should be adding new material! Williamborg 01:04, 21 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Articles in the entire Atlas Mountain cluster have been expanded. Williamborg 13:39, 23 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose - I'll try to find a time to translate the french wiki. – Szvest 09:26, 21 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose - Wow, there's been a lot of work since User:AAM proposed deletion. All the Atlas related articles are improved. This is a much better set of articles. If User:Williamborg didn't already have a Barnstar for geography, I'd nominate him for one. UmptanumRedux 14:24, 27 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose - Nice work. :NikoSilver: 15:54, 27 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose - the Atlas Mountains comprise several ranges, each of which deserves a separate page - MPF 10:23, 28 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I am also impressed by the work that has been done since my proposal! Obviously the reasons I stated at that time have disappeared. Nice! --User:AAM | Talk 20:38, 30 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It does the heart of a devoted inclusionist good to see a merger recommendation go away. Thanks for the kind words; this is what keeps us obssesive, cumpulsive Wikipedians going, and going and going... Williamborg 03:02, 1 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Rif is not a part of the Atlas[edit]

It's a well known fact. Here's my sources [1] [2] . Note that the Rif is a range of mountains itself. [3] [4]. They're both different ranges. I'll update the map in this article. – Sabertooth 21:59, 15 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Nice Satellite photo from March 2011[edit]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2011/apr/04/satellite-eye#/?picture=373239664&index=8

I am not sure where to put this in the article.

Vdm (talk) 22:31, 4 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]


Mythology?[edit]

any geophysical phenomenon has a social impact and this should be properly reflected in an encyclopaedia article - Wikipedia is not just a geographical encyclopaedia! Apart from a passing mention that the majority of inhabitants of the area are Berber, this article completely ignores the social, including fact that traditions and stories exist about the Atlas Mountains - including their personification as a deity in Greek and Berber myth. Surely this warrants at least a passing mention and cross-reference or two? — Preceding unsigned comment added by The Lesser Merlin (talk • contribs) 14:53, 13 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]


Etymology[edit]

What is naming etymology? Is there any connection to Greek mythology Atlas ? --Propatriamori (talk) 00:18, 24 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Reasons to discuss 2018 murders on a geography page?[edit]

Content related to horrors tied to the region do not belong on a page dealing with geographical information. — Preceding unsigned comment added by MALescos (talk • contribs) 02:22, 27 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Links to pages on the history of the geographical area would be a major plus for those of us who spiderweb in our explorations of the world. It seems that including this in See Also section would be an intuitive addition. Steve Scott (talk) 22:16, 30 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Broken Links[edit]

Found an alternative link for reference #4. However, when I click the Edit link for the section it only allows editing of the heading. So here's the link: http://gent.uab.cat/ateixell/sites/gent.uab.cat.ateixell/files/13.-Ayarzaetal2005.pdf — Preceding unsigned comment added by Steve Scott (talk • contribs) 22:06, 30 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Atlas etymology[edit]

There is a lack of toponomy/etymology section in this article. I'm finding very conflicting sources. Could someone with better sources include a section for this? I have various sources, but some are less reliable than others, and none really pull it together. According to my sources:

  • the term "Dahra" (or "Darah", "Daran", etc.) is found in Medieval Arabic sources to refer to the Atlas range. We have a page "Dahra Range" to refer only to a sub-part (western Tell Atlas) and it states the term "dahra" comes from the Arabic for "back". This does not seem right, or might be a false etymology, as the term is much older than that, before the arrival of Arabic-speakers into the area.
  • Strabo (Bk.17, ch.3 Eng Grk) says the Greeks refer to it as "Atlas" (Aτλαντα) and the Berbers as "Dyris" (Δύριν). The latter clearly foreshadows the later Arabic "Dahra".
  • Romans called the Aurès range the "Aurasian mons", and this is apparently derived from the Berber term "Adrar Awras" (meaning "wild mountain" - as it was an area full of wild animals).

Although I have no concrete source to confirm it, it seems to me evident that Aures, Awras, Dyris, Dahra, derive from the same origin in the Berber term "Adrar Awras". It seems to me almost obvious that the Greek term "Atlas" might too be derived from Awras too (it is common to slip 'l' for 'r' in many languages). Are there any sources stating or confirming this common source?

Looking to annotations on Medieval European charts is also revealing:

  • Medieval Spanish portolan charts of the Majorcan school are among the first to depict the Atlas range on a European map (typically stylized as an elongated palm tree laying across North Africa), e.g. Angelino Dulcert (1339) Catalan Atlas (1375), Mecia de Viladestes (1413 (see here), etc. But they don't call it "Atlas". Their sources for North African place names are mostly derived from earlier Arabic geographers rather than classical Greeks (note: at this time, neither Strabo nor Ptolemy were discovered yet).
    • There is a label by a valley near Marrakesh ("Maroch") cutting through the High Atlas range which they call the "valley of Darha", e.g. Catalan Atlas writes "The merchants that enter the land of the blacks of Guinea pass through this place; this pass is called Valley of Darcha". Viladestes changes the label to "This valley is called the valley of Dara, and is another way into the valley of Sous". It seems both are referring to the modern Ourika Valley, but apparently the Majorcan cartographers used "Darha" here, evidently drawing it from contemporary Arabic sources as the generic Arabic term for the Atlas range. The Ourika valley was the best-known passage that cut through the High Atlas range in southern Morocco and connected (via Sijilmassa) to the Trans-Saharan trade route. So it was the Atlas crossing for traders of the era, par excellence.
    • Now the "val de Dara" could be a reference to the Draa valley, but the Draa does not cut across the mountains, but rather runs parallel to the Anti-Atlas, just south of it. There seems to be some linguistic connection between "Dahra" mountains and the Draa valley, although this is unclear. It is not implied in the charts. The Draa valley is the "Lixius" of Carthaginian-Greek antiquity. Medieval Italian charts (e.g. Pizzigani of 1367) as well as Spanish charts (e.g. Catalan of 1375) call the Draa valley area "Gozola" (or Gazula), a reference to the Gazzula, a Sanhaja Berber tribe which inhabited this area. If there is a linguistic connection between "Dahra" mountains and the "Draa" river, it would be useful to know.
    • There is another label under the Middle Atlas which says, more mystifyingly, "All these mountains along its length called Carena by the Saracens, and by the Christians Montis Claris; and know that, in the said mountains, there are a lot of good towns and castles which make war upon each other; also the said mountains are abundant in bread, wine, oil and all sorts of good fruits; and there are lots of beasts of wool and meat."
    • Contrary to what the label asserts, there is no known usage of the term "Carena" by Arabs or Berbers (if I am mistaken, I'd be glad to be corrected). References to "Carena" or its Latin version "Carina" is found only in Medieval Spanish charts. Not sure where they got the "Carena" from (a confused allusion to the historical Kahina, queen of the Aures?).
    • More interesting is "Montis Claris", and I found a scholar who asserts it was originally written "Montis Daris" on the charts. But that by transcription error (by map copyists) the "d" of "montis daris" became a "cl" and began to be written "montis claris". The "Montis Claris" error was fortuitous ("Clear Mountains" implies bright, snowy), and it seemed a natural fit for the snow-capped High Atlas mountains. The "Montis Claris" label for the Atlas range is found in Spanish maps down to the 17th Century.
    • In sum, the use of the "Darha" term by the Medieval Spanish cartographers to refer to the Atlas (whether directly, or corrupted as "claris") reinforces the connection.
  • The Greek myth of Atlas (and by extension Atlantis, etc.) seems, which is reported in Hesiod, Herodotus, etc. may have been retroactively constructed for a term "Atlas" that was already being applied by overseas Greeks to the mountain range.

Anyway, all this is pretty speculative and conjectural. And I hope to find more solid sources for the "Atlas" etymology. But it seems to me from scanning a myriad of sources that it is really all driven by the common root in the Berber term "Awras" going through various incarnations in other languages (Aures, Atlas, Dyris, Dahra, Daris, Claris, etc.) But of course, much of this is WP:OR. So if someone has better information from RS's on the "Atlas" etymology (and any connection it might have to Aures, Dahra, etc.), it would be helpful to include in the article. Walrasiad (talk) 04:35, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Name in tamazight[edit]

@M. Bitton: 1) Tamazight is spoken in all the countries crossed by the Atlas and is the same official language in at least 2 countries, you have removed sourced content
2) MOS:FORLANG proves me right: they say "For example, an article about a location in a non-English-speaking country will typically include the local-language equivalent"
Please stop this targetting. YusAtlas (talk) 14:32, 8 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

1) Tamazight is an invented language that is not spoken by anyone. 2) Being official is meaningless as Tamazight can be written in 3 alphabets (Latin, Arabic and Tifinagh). 3) The name that a Moroccan newspaper invented for in Tamazight is irrelevant to the other countries (and I suspect to most Moroccans too). 4) MOS:FORLANG clearly says that If the subject of the article is closely associated with a non-English language, a single foreign language equivalent name can be included. Here, we have the Arabic name that is closely associated with the topic (unlike Tamazigh) and shared across all the concerned countries. M.Bitton (talk) 16:45, 8 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Precipitation[edit]

This topic is not addressed in the article. I feel that it should be an interesting topic, because these mountains must play a role in the extreme dryness of the Sahara. I'm suspecting that there must be areas in the west of these mountains that have more precipitation and to the east that have less. It would be nice to have a map showing precipitation and climate zones within and around the range. Could someone address this? Skysong263 (talk) 23:24, 15 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Tectonics[edit]

There was an earthquake in Morocco in September of 2023. I have seen some interesting discussion of faults in this area. It would be nice if someone would further develop this topic

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/11/morocco-earthquake-cause-geological-map/

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/09/world/africa/earthquake-history-morocco-1960.html?searchResultPosition=2 Skysong263 (talk) 23:29, 15 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

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