near Chouahed, south-east of Asilah, Morocco

Msoura

Undated circle, with a later mound in the middle (solstice stones reported, and no radiocarbon)

Near Asilah, an ellipse of standing stones rings a low mound. A survey gives 168 stones still up, a long axis of 59.29 metres, and a short axis of 56.18 metres. The tallest stone is over 5 metres. Nobody has a radiocarbon date for the ring.

Why this is extraordinary

About 15 kilometres south-east of Asilah, near the village of Chouahed, an ellipse of monoliths stands around a low mound. A survey counts 168 stones still there, out of about 175, with a long axis of 59.29 metres and a short axis of 56.18. The tallest is over 5 metres. The mound in the middle was dug in 1935 and 1936 and has never recovered. Lixus, the old coastal town, is about 27 kilometres away. The ring is the inland monument.

How a solstice mark works here is the same as anywhere. At the equinox the sun rises due east. At the winter solstice it rises as far south of east as it will, and at the summer solstice as far north. The 1970s survey, the one later accounts rely on, says at least seven stones of this ring take those risings and settings. You would stand in the ellipse and watch which stone the sun clears. The short versions of that survey do not print the azimuth from a numbered stone to the horizon, so a reader cannot yet tell a tight mark from a stone that merely lies in the right quarter. With more than 160 stones, every quarter has stones in it.

The same work reads the oval as drawn from a right triangle of 12, 35 and 37, and finds that a step near 0.836 metres, a unit used in a famous survey of British rings, brings the axis and the perimeter near whole numbers. That is a possible shared geometry. It is also a fit you can hunt for once the oval has been measured. This room leaves it as a published fit, not as a recovered ruler.

Plutarch, writing up Sertorius in the first century CE, says people of the district told of a tomb of the giant Antaeus near Tangier and Lixus. This circle is the great stone ring in that country. The text does not name it. A story can stick to a mound. The mound here may not even be the same date as the stones around it.

What this changes: if the seven stones hold as measured marks and a socket date is Neolithic, the Atlantic coast of Morocco has a solar ellipse of the family claimed for Britain and Ireland, and the yard is a hypothesis with a place to test. If the sun is an accident of a large ring, Msoura is still a measured oval of 168 stones whose sockets have no date, wrapped around a mound a twentieth-century dig emptied.

Why it matters

If the ring marks solstice and equinox sunrises, this Atlantic hill kept a solar year in stone, and its builders shared a geometry with ellipses in Britain and Ireland. If the mound is the monument and the ring is undated, the sun marks are a pattern a large ellipse will always offer some stones for.

The circle lies about 15 kilometres south-east of Asilah, near Chouahed, and about 27 kilometres from the Roman and Phoenician town of Lixus. A count used in the survey tradition is 168 stones surviving from about 175. The centre is a tumulus, damaged by digging in 1935 and 1936. The only full instrumental survey often cited is the one made in the 1970s.

Photo tour

2 photographs, unedited. On a phone, swipe the row. Choose one to look closely.

What is still unexplained

These sit beside the consensus account, with the same visual weight. None of them is marked solved.

Open Seven stones and the sun The 1970s survey reported that at least seven stones mark solar events. Winter and summer solstice sunrise and sunset, and equinox sunrise and sunset. At this latitude the equinox sun rises due east and sets due west. At the solstices it rises and sets as far north or south of that line as the year allows. You would test the claim by standing inside the ellipse and seeing which stone the sun clears on those mornings and evenings. The survey says particular stones do that. It is a report of a pattern, not a table this room can reprint stone by stone. A ring this large, with more than 160 stones, puts some stone near each of those bearings by chance unless the match is tighter than “near.” The published claim is “mark,” which is tighter, and the azimuths are not in the short accounts used here.

Open A triangle, and a yard The same survey tradition says the ellipse was set out from a right triangle in the ratio 12, 35, 37, a Pythagorean triple, and that a unit near 0.836 metres, the so-called megalithic yard, brings the long axis and the perimeter close to whole numbers. That is a geometric reading of a measured oval. Many ovals can be fitted with a triple after the fact. A shared yard with British rings is a strong claim about contact or about a shared measuring habit, and it needs the fit to be unique, not the best of several rulers. This room reports the fit as published. It does not treat the yard as a recovered tool.

Open Antaeus, and a mound that was dug In the first century CE, Plutarch’s life of Sertorius says local people told the Roman general of a tomb of the giant Antaeus, near Tangier and Lixus. The circle is the megalithic place in that neighbourhood. The ancient text does not name these stones. The mound in the middle was opened in 1935–36 and is probably later than the ring, or at least not shown to be the same work. A story of a giant’s grave can attach itself to any large old tomb. It is testimony about what people in the first century believed was nearby. It is not a date for the 168 stones.

Location and dating

Location: Near Chouahed, about 15 kilometres south-east of Asilah. The coordinate is 35.4042 north and 5.9439 west.
Period label: Current consensus — open to revision Unsettled. The ring is often called Neolithic because of its form. No radiocarbon from the sockets is in the sources used here. The central mound was disturbed in 1935–36 and may be a later burial.
How this dating was done: Form, compared with other stone ellipses. The solar reading is archaeoastronomy from the 1970s survey. The ancient text is a first-century account of a tomb in the district, not a label on this ring.
What could change it: Charcoal or bone from an undisturbed socket, and a published azimuth from a numbered stone to a solstice sunrise.

What is actually there

About 168 stones surviving, from about 175.
Major axis 59.29 metres, minor axis 56.18 metres.
Tallest stone over 5 metres.
Central tumulus, dug in 1935–36.
At least seven stones reported as solar markers.
A 12–35–37 triangle and a unit near 0.836 metres are part of the geometric reading.

Open questions

Question	Status
Do seven particular stones mark the solstices and equinoxes, or does a large ellipse always have stones in those directions?	Open. The survey says they mark them. The azimuths are not printed in the accounts used here.
Is the ring Neolithic, or is the only datable feature the later mound?	Open. There is no radiocarbon on the sockets.

The current narrative

Where publication stands today. It is the best-supported reading, and it is open to revision. It is not a verdict.

The current narrative — open to revision

An undated ring around a later mound

Msoura is a megalithic ellipse whose sockets have not been dated. The mound is a burial monument damaged in the 1930s. Solar alignments and a shared yard with Atlantic Europe are possible descriptions of the shape, not yet a date or a contact.

What supports this

No radiocarbon from the stone sockets is published in the sources used here.
The 1935–36 dig hurt the mound and did not produce a dated sequence for the ring.
A large ellipse will place stones near the solstice bearings. Without printed azimuths the “seven stones” claim cannot be checked from the page.

What pushes back

The axes are published to the centimetre, 59.29 and 56.18, so someone measured a deliberate oval, not a casual cluster.
A survey named seven stones as solar markers, which is specific.
Plutarch records a local tradition of a giant’s tomb in this district in the first century. The tradition is evidence of an old monument people could point to, even if it does not name the circle.

What would settle it

It is the centre because an undated ring should not be given a Neolithic birthday or a British yard on geometry alone. It moves if a socket date and a printed azimuth arrive together.

Emerging narratives

Other published readings. Each may be right. None is adopted here unless the evidence carries it.

An emerging narrative

A solar ellipse in a shared Atlantic geometry

The ring was laid out as an ellipse that marks solstice and equinox sunrises and sunsets, using a right triangle of 12, 35 and 37 and a unit close to the megalithic yard. It belongs with the stone ellipses of the Atlantic, not with the Roman town down the coast.

What supports this

The 1970s survey reports at least seven stones on those solar events.
The published axes are nearly equal, 59.29 against 56.18 metres, which is a flat ellipse of the kind that survey tradition studies.
The same triangle and a unit near 0.836 metres are the method claimed for a set of British ellipses.

What pushes back

Fitting a triple and a yard after you have measured an oval is easier than recovering the builders’ ruler.
The central mound may be later, so the monument people see today is at least two ideas piled up.
No socket date means the Atlantic comparison has no century to land in.

What would settle it

It stays because the measurements exist and the solar report is specific. It is not the centre until the azimuths and a date are published side by side.

Should the current view be reevaluated?

Open to revision

The ellipse is measured. Its age is not, and the sun is a survey report without a table of bearings. Open keeps the undated ring and the solar reading together.

What drives this

168 stones, axes 59.29 and 56.18 metres, tallest over 5 metres.
Seven stones reported as solstice and equinox markers, without azimuths in these accounts.
A mound dug in 1935–36, and a first-century story of a giant’s tomb in the district.

This is the museum’s own weighing of the evidence. It is not a visitor vote, and it is separate from the slider.

Weigh it yourself

Anonymous. Nothing here is stored except on this browser. Your lean does not change the assessment beside it.

An undated ring around a later mound Unsure A solar ellipse in a shared Atlantic geometry

If the contested reading is right

What would follow if a reading that is not the consensus turned out to be true, and what could settle it. This explains the stakes. It does not adopt the reading.

Seven stones were set for the sun

Msoura would be a solar calendar on the Atlantic coast of Africa, and the question of a shared measure with European ellipses would be worth a new survey. The date would still have to come from a socket.

Why it is still worth a test

Numbered azimuths to the six solar events, and a date from an unexcavated stone hole.

Sources

The enigmatic Mzora stone ring Stone Pages, reporting the 1970s survey measures
Msoura Wikipedia, for the coordinate and the stone counts

Image credits

The west side of the circle. One stone is much taller than the others. A low mound rises behind the ring. Trees and a cut bank of red earth sit beyond. . Erwann Andre, CC BY-SA 4.0. Shown unedited.
Another stretch of the ring. The stones are uneven in height, in dry grass, with trees behind them. No person is in this frame, so it does not give a human scale. . Robert Haasdyk, CC BY-SA 3.0. Shown unedited.

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