Through the Atlas Mountains to the Kasbah

We, or to be very precise our guide Samir, drove out of Marrakech this morning and over the Atlas Mountains to the South. The 2260m high Tizi N Tichka pass we used was closed by snow only a couple of days ago and served up some spectacular views. The countryside is pretty sparse and hard-scrabble, but beautiful for all that.

On the other side of the Mountains we passed through more obvious farmlands, with dates and olives being most easily spotted. Then we turned a corner and were presented with the kasbah of Ait Benhaddou. Kasbah means fortress or citadel and the ones here were basically stopping points on the camel trade route from Benin to the North. This one, like all the others here, is formed of rammed mud and straw (and so was badly damaged in the earthquake a couple of years ago) and covers a hillside in blocky buildings. It’s picturesque enough that it has featured in numerous movies and TV series. We just found it beautiful.

The nearby town of Ouarzazate was less picturesque and features a huge film sett that you can tour. We gave it a miss and pushed on to Skoura for a look at another Kasbah. This one was a great example of something we’ve seen a lot of round here – a property is divided amongst children when the father dies and they can’t agree, so they simply split it physically and add extra doors. In this case the difference in up-keep between the two halves was very obvious.

Then we moved on to our hotel which sits in the middle of a plain down endless dirt roads. It has a lovely terrace with views of the mountains and surroundings rammed-earth buildings. We sat on the terrace and were served a welcome tea poured from a couple of feet above the cup, the only other sound being the bleating of distant goats, and watched the sun colour the distant snow-capped peaks. It was one of those perfect moments where you can only feel very lucky.