The territory
Three places, one story of water
From the ancient stone to the land that holds it, and on to the community that passes it down.
Lamasba
The source of law
The Roman site and its inscription: the oldest known law of water in the region.
Belezma
The land of water
The mountain, its cedars and its springs. The mountain that holds the water and returns it to the plain.
Merouana
The living memory
The community that inherits and passes on: the water turns still practised, the gestures, the voices.
The law of water
A stone, a law, a memory
At Lamasba, on the site of present-day Merouana, a Roman inscription carved under Emperor Elagabalus organises the sharing of irrigation water among the members of a farming community. It is one of the oldest known testimonies to the right to water — and it still speaks to our time.
A civilisation is not measured by its monuments alone, but by the way it shares what is vital.
The work
Keeping memory alive
The association does not merely preserve: it keeps Lamasba alive through creation — the stone, the book, the film.
The Inscription
The carved document: the law of water in stone, held at the National Museum in Algiers.
The Novel
Lamasba: The Law of Water — a historical novel in three languages, born of stone and memory.
The Documentary
The film: Lamasba through image, voice and narrative — from stone to awareness.
The association
A memory to pass on
The Lamasba Association for Memory and Water safeguards this heritage: the ancient stone, the mountain that holds the springs, and the community that carries its acts forward. To document, to make known, to pass on.
