Beachcombers in Morocco hunt for hidden treasure

Agadir, Morocco – Mustapha Harmouch moves slowly across the sand at Agadir’s Corniche, sweeping his metal detector in low, even arcs. He tunes out the surfers paddling beyond the shore, the children shrieking in the waves and the chatter of families, all his attention is on one sound: the beep that means the coil has passed over something buried beneath the sand.

For the 33-year-old content creator, that uncertainty is the whole appeal. The detector does not distinguish between treasure and rubbish, it gives the same signal whether the object below is a coin, a ring, a discarded piece of aluminium, or an old piece of fishing equipment.

“The excitement comes partly from not knowing what lies beneath the sand,” he told Al Jazeera English.

Harmouch bought a Tianxun TX 850 metal detector online about four years ago. What began as a hobby has since become an occasional part of the videos he posts on Stofishing, a YouTube travel and spearfishing channel with roughly 123,000 subscribers.

“It’s a nice hobby because it’s the kind of exploration where I find something and learn something new,” he said. “Each outing is a chance to encounter something I would otherwise never have known about.”

That curiosity has led him to old coins, including some associated with historical periods and places such as the Al Haouz region and Fez.

In the coastal town of Sidi Ouassay, about 65km south of Agadir, he says he found one of his rarest hauls: 14 Moroccan falus, old bronze or copper coins, in a single spot.

Some were too damaged by salt and the passage of time for their markings to be easily read, but Harmouch says the oldest dates to 1289 on the Hijri calendar.

For Harmouch, the coins’ value lies less in their price than in what they reveal about the past.

“I just collect them as a memory,” he said with a glint in his eye.

In the same area, he once found what he thought was a meteorite, only to learn it was a common, inexpensive mineral.

“Before asking, I thought I had found the best discovery,” he said, laughing at the memory.

That sense of possibility and adventure is what keeps him returning to the beaches around Agadir.

Harmouch goes detecting about four times a month, often with fellow members of the Moroccan Association for Research and Exploration Enthusiasts. He favours Taghazout and Agadir’s Corniche, where there is less rubbish for his detector to pick up.

The beaches have yielded jewellery, Moroccan coins and foreign currency, including a French 20-franc silver coin.

The possibility of finding something valuable is still part of the appeal. He once found a small gold ring in Taghazout.

“I always try to identify and return valuable lost items to their rightful owners,” Harmouch says.

Where the law draws the line

Morocco’s main legal framework for protecting historical monuments, archaeological sites, works of art and antiquities dates to Law 22-80, which regulates archaeological prospecting and the treatment of historical discoveries. The government has reiterated that unauthorised archaeological searches on land or at sea are prohibited.

Under the law, searches intended to uncover monuments or moveable objects of historic, archaeological, or anthropological importance require authorisation, while accidental discoveries are subject to reporting requirements.

If a non-archaeological activity uncovers monuments, coins, works of art, or antiquities, the discovery must be reported to authorities. The objects should not be damaged or moved, except where necessary to protect them.

Finding a modern coin lost by a holidaymaker is one thing; deliberately searching for archaeological material is another.

But on Morocco’s coastline, archaeologists say the context in which an object is found can be just as important as the object itself.

Underwater archaeologist Basma Oumaima explains why context matters: “Sometimes something as simple as a fragment of metal, a coin, or a small tool can become important because of where it was found and what was found around it”.

“That does not mean curiosity itself should be discouraged. Metal detectors themselves can actually be useful tools in archaeology when they are used as part of a proper archaeological survey, where every find is located, recorded and studied within its context”.

Harmouch says he respects the law. Members of the association carry identification, avoid private property and heritage sites and treat detecting as a hobby rather than a job. His source of income, he says, comes mainly from content creation and a fishing equipment store.

‘Every person has their luck’

For Mohamed Botaib, metal detecting has never been his main source of income. A former sports coach currently looking for work, he searches beaches, forests and mountains as a hobby.

His finds have been modest: ordinary coins, Moroccan dirhams and rings.

“Every person has their luck,” he said.

For Jalal Zegnoune, another detectorist, removing unwanted metal is one of the hobby’s practical sides. His detector has produced coins, jewellery, glasses and watches, along with less glamorous finds, including rusted sardine-can fragments, nails and lost fishing gear.

“I remove such objects from the beaches because some can be dangerous to beachgoers,” he said.

Zegnoune works full-time as a maintenance technician in Casablanca and goes metal detecting when he’s free or for limited hours in the evening.

“I also enjoy meeting other people who practise the hobby and sharing the objects they find.”

“When we look at the beach, it’s not to find treasure,” Botaib says. “It’s also our way of contributing to keeping our beaches clean. We collect pieces of metal and aluminium that we find and throw them away.”