The 50p Dinner

One of the best things that has happened here is that about a month ago a takeaway opened across the road. It sadly doesn't open on Sundays or Fridays but is useful on other days and I hope to use it tonight. It sells only one product a roll of chicken kebab with onion, olivea, Harissa and gravy. 5Dh. it is next door to the patisserie which is open in the evenings with slices of cake for 1Dh. so, as there are 12Dh to the £ dinner for 50p.

The girl in the Spider's Web

We went into town today to pick up my cushion. I had at last finished the tapestry. It took me a whole year which is at least twice as long as it would have taken me 10 years ago but my eyesight gets worse and worse and | cannot sew for long. I got the upholsterer to make it into a cushion for my green chair and I think it goes well.

Town was busy, or at least the area around Bab Taghout and we couldn't understand it being a Monday but our friend in the Souk, who was not finding it busy at all, explained that there is a 2 day local moussem at the kaaba of a local marabout about 200m from Bab Taghout. Lots of villagers have come in to feast on camel meat and that may explain why the water was only a trickle even downstairs yesterday as apparently they have to shower after eating camel meat before they can pray.

We took the opportunity to do some last minute shopping to take home; coffee.preserved lemons, harissa, dried apricots and a woodenn ladle and spoons.

Slam dunk

                                                   


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBY4PMk39QM

Tiznit Murals

I fist noticed the fashion for large scale mural portraits on the sides of buildings with the Berber portrait in Marrakesh but Tiznit has grown some good ones.

This one on the side of a nursery school is particularly apposite.

More Stone Age Carvings

I was unwell after our trip to Akka as I had  deliberately let myself get dehydrated because of the lack of toilet facilities. I paid the penalty overnight and was left in a darkened room whilst Beloved went with a younger guide to see some other carvings only 23km west of Icht at Ait Herbil. He said it was just as well I didn't go as it was very scrambly and I wouldn't have managed the climbs but at least they were accessible from an asphalt road. 

These carvings are clearly not as old as those near Akka and are not deeply  incised into the rock so are in some instances less easy to see. They are more like the engravings of goats  so may be 3.000 years old or perhaps even more recent. .In that regard they are more like the Anazani petroglyphs near Alberquerque.

They also reflect a change in the climate from rhinoceros friendly swampland in the the most common animals depicted are cows.

I was also struck by the occurrence of the spiral symbol which is found at Aberquerque and New Grange but also in New Zealand, Ausralia,, South America, Scandinavia, the Balkans and the Far east.

The Guide

In the past we have used guides in Fez and Marrakech and they have been relatively expensive and taken us to shops selling things we have no wish to buy but we realised that we would probably need one at Akka. Our first surprise was his rate which was considerably less than those in the cities. Then , looking back, I realise that there was no suggestion whatsoever that we may wish to go somewhere to purchase something, in fact it was I who insisted we stop off at a cafe where I knew there were english loos. 
If you need a guide in the area his name is
Mouloud Taarabet
8405 Touzounine
Akka-Tata
06.62.29.18.64

He is referred to in our 12 year old guide book and has been guiding for over 30 years. He took us to the hamlet where he lived as a child off the piste to the carvings although he now lives in a modern house in Touzoune with his wife and five children

Ait Kin: The Agadir

Moumoud wanted to show us more graffiti near Akka but we said we said we would prefer to see an agadir. He took us to Ait Kin which was a long if spectacular journey but the agadir was a stonker.
Ait kin is near Tagmoute half way between Igherm and Tata on the lesser more easterly of the two roads joining them. It is a small hamlet but the villagers have restored their agadir as a tourist attraction with funds from the Obama government. How successful this is as a commercial enterprise is difficult to say as our arrival caused quite a stir and there were no signs of regular tourist provision such as a cafe,hanut or coffee shop.
Agadirs are fortified granaries. Those in the anti-atlas are built in a particular style usually at the centre of a fortified village. Ait Kin is not fully fortified but it does have a defensive gatehouse at its entrance.

From here you pass into the village through a confusing series of low roofed passageways

with dogleg bends which would be highly defensible until you come to the central square with the agadir on one side and the mosque opposite.

There is a defensive tower at the point where you enter the square

The only entrance to the agadir is from the square through a pair of formidable doors.

Inside is a courtyard  with numerous small rooms built into the walls where the grain would be stored.

All are above ground level and accessible only by ladders, traditionally made from palm trunks

.The guardian showed us the original records of the agadir, some on parchment

 and others inscribed into wood

The agadir is mentioned in a document of 1709.so it is either late 17C or early 18C. Thankfully for me it is an a less defensive position than many in the anti-atlas so we did not have to climb a peak to get to it but could drive straight up to the Imi n'Wasqif gate and then it was on the flat. The gatehouse is unusual but many agadirs are in very inaccessible sites.

Balance for Better

A story about how wome's roles are changing in Morocco

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-47362322/i-am-morocco-s-first-female-mountain-guide

Prehistoric Graffiti near Akka

Akka is famous for its prehistoric rock carvings although there are similar carvings all along the rocks south of the anti-atlas. We went to the most accessible group. To get there  you turn south off the N12 just west of Akka  and then travel several kilometres across piste

 which is definately not designed for the clearance of our little Peugot hire car.

 Without a guide you would be hard -pressed to find the right ridge and when you get there you may see some walking along the ridge but I doubt you'd find half.
 We used Moumoud (tel 06.62.29.18.64) who has been guiding the area for over 30 years.
The carvings  are 6,500 years old and mostly depict gazelles

 but also deer, elephant,

rhinocerous,

  giraffe

 and even a man hunting with a bow and arrow. 6,500 years ago the area was not semi-desert but a lush savannah and swamp and these and the animals that lived here. There are also fossils from when it was a seabed.

The carvings are incised into the rock about a millimetre deep. The thing about this rock is that it is like that at the National Petraglyph Park we saw near Albuquerque. It appears black but this is only a very thin surface layer which has oxidised over time. When they were first carved the graffiti would have been much clearer standing out as white against the black rock. The native american petroglyphs at Alberquerque are not incised as deeply as the carvings and and are dated from 1000BCE -1200CE. interestingly there are some later carvings here of goats which are only 3,000 years old, ie,c1000BCE and they are not deeply incised either.

I have to wonder how come two cultures so far apart have similar artistic expression. Also does this idea of scraping the surface of the earth to reveal the white (bone?) beneath persist in the chalk forms on the downs, the white horses of southern England and also is it related to the current Morrocan custom of writing in white painted stones on hillsides. as in Agadir or here at Tamgroute.