More pictures

The artist has done some more pictures inspired by her visit. See more of her pictures at http://nalinigallery.yolasite.com/



All about Eve




Taste of Marjorelle




High Altitude



Teleouet - The Glaoui Stronghold Crumbles

Teleouet kasbah dominating the caravan route across the Atlas was the souce of the Glaoui wealth. The tolls from the trade allowed them to buy up land in drought years and reinvest the income in the brothels of Marrakesh. The kasbah was built in 3 phases the last in the 20th century. As Pasha Glaoui's influence grew it was sumptously furnished and reached its apogee in 1945 when Churchill, De Gaulle and Patton attended a fantasia there. It has not been inhabited since 1954 and the Glaoui downfall. Unlike some of the Glaoui Kasbahs it is only pise in parts and the core is stone built. Some of the rooms are in fine condition with their zellij work and leather and beamed ceilings intact. It is a good example of turn of the century moroccan ornamentation but if you look closely although it is impressive you can see how the art has deteriorated since the Nasrid dynasties built the Alhambra. The patterns are less complex and in the main use fewer and simpler symetries.
The inhabitants of the older parts of the local village are noticeably darker skinnned than the majority of moroccans and are descendants of the sub-saharan africans imported by the Glaoui as servants ( for which given the role of the caravanserai route I read "slaves") and the older part of the village was built as their quarters.
We were shown round by Aissa, named, he told us, for the prophet Isaiah. His father had come from Mohammed, the town in the south,  and he placed his identity in this tribe although he clearly had residuary respect for Pasha Glaoui, collaborator or not. Aissa had quite excellent english and explained that nowadays Teleouet was a carpet town specialising in knotted carpets. They make, he claimed , the 3rd best carpets in the world, the best being from Isfahan in Iran followed by Buhkara in Afghanistan and then Glaoui.




Teleouet Kasbah




Teleouet Kasbah




Teleouet Kasbah



Teleouet Kasbah




View across fantasia ground from Teleouet Kasbah




Entrance to Teleouet Kasbah




Entrance to Teleouet Kasbah



Door, Teleouet Kasbah




Interior, Teleouet Kasbah




Interior , Teleouet Kasbah




This large window was added in 1945 for winston Churchill, bill Patton and Charles de Gaulle to watch the fantasia at Teleouet Kasbah



Ceiling Teleouet Kasbah




View of the fantasia ground through the "Churchill" window, Teleouet Kasbah




Interior, Teleouet Kasbah




Interior frieze of Chinese silks, Teleouet Kasbah



Terrace, Teleouet Kasbah




View from terrace, Teleouet Kasbah




View across roof of Teleouet Kasbah



Pasha Glaoui

                                                
                                                                                                                                                               

The caravan road

The road north from Ait Benhaddou to Teleouet is the ancient caravan route from sub-Saharan Africa to the North. It was only tarmaced through last summer and now it is possible to drive in an ordinary hire car along the route through which thousands of slaves were force marched to the markets of Marrakech and exotic goods such as ivory were trafficked. The local Pashas of the Glaoui tribe became very rich taking a toll of all the goods passing over the coll.
During the French occupation the Glaoui became very powerful collaborators maintaining the puppet Sultan in power and becoming faboulously wealthy.  You can read about them in Gavin Maxwell's classic "Lords of the Atlas" or more briefly at the links below. However although the brothers controlled both the main passes over the Atlas, the Tizi n'Test and the Tizi n' Tichka I think the French must not really have trusted them and prepared ahead for their eventual fall because when they built the current roads in the 30s they bypassed the Glaoui kasbahs on both routes. Hence Teleouet became cut off and this road relegated to a piste. The new part of the road is very good with spectacular hairpins and views but the southern part of the old metalled part of the road south of Teouet has , strangely, not been repaired and is pot-holed for 10km or so.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8704571.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thami_El_Glaoui

Picture Perfect

The artist sent me this image of a collage she's completed based on her stay in Morocco. It's said to be the first in a series.

Ouzarzate 2

We had been to Ouazarzate a couple of years ago and visited a studio (see 11.7.11) but this year we had Sweetheart with us and were on our way to the film festival so to continue the film theme we visited the other studio. This one was the one nearer in towards town with the Hotel Oscar attatched.
It's a bit of a scam to have the 2 studios with separate visits and tickets as it it clear that any film made uses both of them and the sets and props of each film are divided between the two. This one had slightly more sets in the studio area but the Kingdom of God sets out in the desert are included in the other Studio's ticket.
We were shown round by a young woman with a degree in Film Production Management who could not get a job other than a studio guide. She had excellent English, Arabic and French of course, Spanish and Italian. She was surprised to hear that we did not get Arabic, French, Italian or Spanish films in cinemas in Wales and was also surprised when I told her that the only Welsh language films are really produced for television.  She showed us the sets for a french Asterix film based on Karnak temple which was interesting as we'd visited the original. The set occupies about 20 mins in the film but took 8 months to build. Another small pyramid took 2 months to build and appeared for about 5 seconds! That's show business. Unfortunately camera difficulties prevented pictures but  we took quite a few of the Kundron sets.
They filmed a documentary there the week before but had no features scheduled in the near future. We somewhat disappointed her by our lack of knowledge of french films shot there  and I was very impressed by how well some of the Ben Hur props had lasted until I found out that there had been a remake in 2009 without Charlton Heston.




Interior set for Kundron




Interior and props for Kundron




Plaster and plastic Stupa




Exterior set for Kundron





Film set with Atlas mountains in the background



Ait Benhaddou 2

We stayed in Ait Benhaddou for the night. 2 rooms, 3 people, dinner bed and breakfast, 500Dhs (that's £40 to you Brits). Can't be bad really.
Ait Benhaddou first came to fame when David Lean used it as a set for Lawrence of Arabia. I clearly recognise the valley from the film but can't remember where the Kasbah was used. I'll have to watch it again; it's on TV Christmas Day afternoon, just the thing after pud.




Early morning view from terrace of Fibule D'Or

                                    


Ait Benhaddou from terrace of La Fibule D'Or



The valley at Ait Benhaddou

                                                                                                                    

Marrakesh Film Festival

Marrakesh Film Festival is held every year about the first week in December and we are often travelling through Marrakesh then on our way home but have never participated in anyway. This year sweetheart was with us so we decided to stop over a couple of nights and see what was going on. Unfortunately our invitation to the opening dinner hosted by the King went missing so we only caught the end. Our real interest was the Homage to Terry Gillian although we weren't there for the screening of Fear and Loathing in Las Vagas which I have never seen although  it is a classic favourite book. Sweetheart did not understand the attraction and sadly was unaware of any significance in the big foot coming down. We saw the maestro himself before the screening of The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus in the Place and sweetheart was of course interested as it was Heath Ledger's last film. Unfortunately it was a dubbed french version, and so as it was very cold and the crowd almost exclusively young males we drifted off for dinner at the food stalls. We had taken the precaution of staying in a hotel just round the corner from the Colisseum cinema and spent our last morning watching The 12 Monkeys IN ENGLISH!




The  screen in Djaa mel Faa



The new park

There has long been a park opposite the Palais Salaam which is a pleasant place to stroll in the evening but we don't go to that side of town often and when we were last there they were doing it up. We went this trip and the improvements are tremendous. It seems to be part of the walls scheme. The paving and seats and planting are all good but it is the new area which is out of House and Garden. The extension is mostly a rill with a hump bridge in the middle and avenues of trees on each side. There are fountains along the rill and it all lights up at night. But the genius is the orientation. The rill is on a line centred on a gateway in the walls across the road and the minaret of the nearby  mosque at the other end.This borrowed landscape really adds to the scene and you can stand on the bridge in the middle and see both. Like something out of the Alhambra.