taroudant: June 2011

Sunday, 26 June 2011

Tifnite

Drive south on the coast road from Inezgane toward Tiznit and you pass the Souss-Massa national park a nature reserve with rare species such as Bald Ibis and Flamingos. Just past Sidi Bibi turn off right to Tifrite, the perfect fishing village.
The road ends at the sea where there is a car park of sorts. When we first went there was a cafe there but it has disappeared without trace so take a picnic. The village is not at the end of the road but about half a mile away along the dunes or the beach depennding on the tide. There is a shop which will sell you cold drinks and, tide depending, fishing off the rocks.The fishing boats pull up onto the beach but fish every day and if you arrive at the right time you can buy fish off the boat.; otherwise the boxes of fish are placed on ice and taken away to the road by donkey.

Tifnite beach

The day's catch from Tinite carried awy by donkey

Thursday, 23 June 2011

Tin Mal

Tin Mal mosque lies just off the Tizi n' Test below the col on the Marrakech side. Its village is now called Ifouriren and is just your average Atlas village of some hundreds of inhabitants, but when the mosque was built in the 12th century this was a town of some 20,000. It was the original stronghold of the Almohad dynasty from where they conquered Marrakesh and then the whole of Morocco and Islamic Spain.
The mosque is being restored using historical building techniques (no cement) and except for the Hassan II mosque in Casablanca is the only mosque in Morocco open to non-muslims. There is a small entrance fee and the guardian will give you a guided tour in expectation of a gratuity. The mosque is important architecturally because it is the prototype for all Almohad mosques and the Koutoubia mosque in Marrakesh is modelled on it.
The Almohads appear to have been the Taliban of their time.Their founder Ben Toumert was a native of the Atlas but when he was about 26 he journeyed first to Cordoba and thence to the middle east. He returned after 12 years in 1118 travelling through the Mahgreb preaching against the Malakite strand of Islam which was orthodox under the then ruling Almoravid dynasty. He preached a strict form of Islam, combined a nationalist appeal by writing in the Berber language and having the call to prayer cried in Berber. He preached against wine, music and women mixing in male society; woman going unveiled or men wearing the veil.He acted as Iman and Judge and used whippings and public executions to encourage those lacking in religous fervour.He also set up a strictly heirachical government and administrative system , identified himself with the Mahdi and called for a Holy War against the "godless states" of the Almoravids. It was however his successor Abd al-Moumin who was able to seize Marrakesh and eventually the Mahgrebi/Spanish empire. He built Tin Mal mosque in memory of Ben Toumert .
The mosque is very simple with minimal ornamentation in accordance with Almohid religous doctrine. It is an austere 61mx42m rectangle comprising a prayer hall and forecourt. The central aisle opposite the mihrab is slightly wider than the others and has some stucco decoration the arches having friezes of geometric decoration. The whole is surrounded by a crenellated wall which probably formed part of the town's fortifications.There is a single short tower-like minaret.

Tin Mal mosque in the High Atlas

Stucco decoration on horseshoe arches. Tin Mal mosque.

Central Aisle Tin Mal Mosque

Horseshoe arches Tin Mal Mosque

View to courtyard Tin Mal Mosque

Restored roof Tin Mal Mosque

Tin Mal Mosque

Monday, 20 June 2011

Tizi n'Test

I just love that sign. The Tizi n' Test is the middle and steepest pass of the 3 main routes through the Atlas from Marrakesh to the south. It is said to start from Taroudant but actually it starts from about 30km east on the route to Ouazazate. This 30 km is in the Sousse valley and pancake flat and then you get to this sign and from there, as the sign says, it is 120 km of hairpin bends and dizzying ascent.
The southern side of the mountains are short and steep but once over the top the Marrakesh side is slower and longer with more villages off. It is the pass by which R Cunningham Greene sought to reach Taroudant as recounted in his 1898 book "A Journey in Morocco". He did not get there being captured by a Goundafi Caid and held prisoner at Talaat n' Yacoub. The kasbah there can still be visited although it is off the main route. Had he succeeded Southern Morocco may have spent the first half of the 20th century under British rather than French control.
The current road was blasted through by French engineers between1926 and 1932. There is a marker stone at the col recording this feat of civil engineering. The road has only been metalled for the past few decades and is only one and a half vehicle wide. To pass oncoming traffic it is necessary for one set of wheels to go onto the piste verges. Locals and Grand Taxis play "chicken" refusing to cede their road. Lorries and coaches are less cavalier but given that the drops from the hairpins are precipitous any encounter with oncoming traffic can be scary. The "Rough Guide" decribes the descent to Taroudnat as "hideously dramatic" which just about sums it up.
That having been said we drive up there quite frequently just for the views. Not in winter when it will be closed for days at a time by snow (the col is about 7000ft above sea level) and not during rain when I don't really trust the boulders not to erode out of the sides or the "streams" not to sweep the road away under but after when the damage is visible and the streams still waterfalls.
On the Taroudant side it seems that every hairpin has its cafe or mineral shop. They are of a muchness, necessarily so as they are so remote. You watch them as you approach marvelling at how they balance ove the drops. All serve limited food, generally salad and omelettes. Either cooked in a frying pan or "Berber omelette" with the filling cooked in the base of a tajine and the the eggs poured on top and the lid added. My favourite is the Hotel Bellevue just below the summit, (there are a number of Bellevues but this has a VW minibus as a mineral shop opposite) not because of the food or the view but because it has immaculate toilets including a sit-on rather than a squat.
The Marrekesh side which is longer and slightly less hair-raising passes by Tin Mal and through Ourigane.Just as it joins the main road into town there is a restaurant with swimming pool and a large function room. We turned up one day hot beyond belief and fractious and they seated us in cool shade and served one of the best moroccan meals I've had, simple, lots of salads, couscous, brochettes but excellent.

View from Tizi n' Test

Cascade Tizi n' Test

View from Tizi n' Test

VW bus as mineral shop Tizi n' Test

Terrace Hotel Bellevue Tizi n'Test

Cascade Tizi n' Test

View from Tizi n' Test

Cascade Tizi n' Test

View from Tizi n' Test

Coming home on Tizi n' Test

View from Tizi n' Test

Saturday, 11 June 2011

Out and about - Tioute

Tioute is about 20 minutes drive from Taroudant. It is coupled with it in the standard day trip from Agadir which allows you a non stop tour round Taroudant Souk and then on to Tioute for lunch in the Kasbah. They will tell you that your vehicle cannot get to the top, which may be true for full-size coaches - certainly turning round would be difficult, but cars and mini-buses can get up no problem. You will be disembarked and then with great jocularity be made to ride up the steep direct route on a donkey; your photo will be taken and sold to you after your "traditional banquet" of moroccan salad, chicken tajine with preserved lemons and olives, and vegetable cous-cous, perhaps with brochettes. I am not sure what happens to the tour parties then whether they are merely allowed a view from the top and to admire the rather splendid but modern tiling or whether they are given a chance to see round the oasis. I suspect the former.

Tioute is a very pleasant self driven trip though. The oasis is still run by the Caid whose family built the Kasbah and although that is now part restored to house the restaurant he lives in a very nice modern house in the village. As you arrive rhere will be some villager waiting to act as a fauxguide pedalling before you to a suitable parking place. He will take you round the palmery showing you the datepalms, beans, carob and fruit trees and the various vegetable and cereal patches depending on the time of year. There will be children with donkeys should you need one. There is the most wonderful pink jasmine near the restaurant/teahouse which is not aimed at tourists but village festivals and weddings. In the spring the boys will be swimming in the water cisterns but by autumn these will have depleted irrigating the crops
Your guide will explain that the oasis has 11 mosques in the various settlements, necessary in the past so the the muezzin could be heard in all the fields, perhaps tending to obsolete in the days of loudspeakers. He will tell you of Tioute's starring role in Ali Baba, a french film made there in the 1950s, and he will suggest you should eat not in the Kasbah but have a genuine better , cheaper meal in a local house, doubtless his own. There is an artisan shop in the village and a stonecarvers, so you can buy a souveninr of your visit and then go on to eat in the Kasbah, with its immaculate european toilets and wonderful views and your guide will go with you and give you bouganvillea. A trip you should do at least once.
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