Page 259 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Morocco

HIGH A TLAS  257

Thus it was that Telouet, a
town with an illustrious past,
has been the victim of neglect
since 1956. The glazed tiles are
disintegrating, the lookout
towers crumbling, the walls
cracking and the windows
shattered. Most of the rooms
are inaccessible since the roof
has fallen in.
However, low-ceilinged,
bare-walled corridors lead
to two reception rooms that
have miraculously survived
the passage of time. They
are vestiges of the opulence
The mosque at Tin Mal, with pink brickwork and plaster stalactites treasured by El-Glaoui. The
Andalusian-style rooms have
World Heritage Site, it is one of patterns. Palm trees come into engraved stuccowork, painted
the few religious buildings in view, and a wide stony desert cedar ceilings and doors,
Morocco that is open to non- plain with tones of pink and and colourful zellij tilework.
Muslims. Its high walls and sturdy beige leads to Ouarzazate. Daylight entering through
towers give it a fortress-like look. a glass-covered dome and a
small window framed with
7 Tizi-n-Tichka Pass decorative wrought iron lights
the rooms from dawn to sunset.
Road
Environs
Road Map C4. From Marrakech or
Ouarzazate on road N9. @ Marrakech From Telouet, a narrow,
or Ouarzazate. ( Tue in Aït Ourir. winding metalled road offers
a pictur esque route to the
Built by the French in the 1920s, village of Aït Benhaddou (see
this winding road runs through p269). In this fertile valley,
a landscape that is, by turn, arid, planted with palm, fig and
mineral-rich environments and olive trees, and irrigated by
fertile valleys. Pisé villages, in Interior of the fortified grainstore at Wadi Ounila, kasbahs signal the
tones of red or grey, huddle at Igherm-n-Ougdal past importance of El-Glaoui’s
the foot of hillsides. fiefdom. The attractive village
The first pass, Tizi-n-Aït of Anemiter, standing at the
Imger, at an altitude of 1,470 m 8 Telouet head of the Ounila valley some
(4,825 ft), offers a panoramic Road Map C4. Accessible from 11 km (9 miles) from Telouet,
view of the Atlas chain. Here, road N9. Open daily; caretaker on is unusually well preserved.
the road is lined with stalls the premises.
selling pottery, mineral rocks
and stones whose colours are About 5 km (3 miles) along
a little too bright to be natural. the road running down
From here up to the Tizi-n- from the Tizi-n-Tichka Pass,
Tichka Pass – which, at an towards Ouarzazate, a narrow
altitude of 2,260 m (7,417 ft), metalled minor road leads off
is the highest road pass in to the left. It drops down into
Morocco – crops gradually give a steep valley, and 20 km
way to a landscape of bare red (12 miles) further on reaches
soil. The mountains become the kasbah of Telouet.
more rounded and the houses This was one of the principal
are built higher, with more residences of Al-Thami el-Glaoui,
decoration, anticipating those pasha of Marrakech, whose
of the Moroccan south. The fiefdom covered a large part of
impressive fortified grainstore the High Atlas. El-Glaoui served
on the way out of Igherm-n- the sultan, then switched to the
Ougdal is open to visitors. French in 1912. His opposition
Beyond Agouim, on the other to Sultan Mohammed V cost
side of the wadi, stands the him dear, for on his death his
restored kasbah at El-Mdint, its family was exiled and his Painted wooden ceiling in the kasbah
towers decorated with relief possessions dispersed. of Telouet
For hotels and restaurants see p312 and pp328–9

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