Tinmel is best known as the home of the Almohads and the starting point of their military campaigns against the Almoravid dynasty.

With the capture of Marrakech in 1147, Tinmel became an essential place of pilgrimage. The mausoleum of Mohammed Ibn Toumert, known as the "Mahdi", is located there, along with those of the first three Almohad caliphs: `Abd al-Mu'min, Abu Yaqub Yusuf and Abû Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansûr. After the decline of the Almohad dynasty, the city lost some of its splendour, but nevertheless remained a place with a strong spiritual connotation. Today, only a few ruins of the wall that surrounded the city and those of the great mosque remain. However, Tinmel occupies an important place in the history of Morocco and the Maghreb. It is the archetypal mosque of the Almohad dynasty, whose model would spread throughout the Maghreb in the following centuries.