Page 281 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Morocco

OU ARZAZA TE & THE SOUTHERN O ASES  279

The village of Tamtattouchte, at the northern end of the Todra gorge, with several fine ksour
rainfall. Visitors should also The old fortified village of small corrals outside. A gate
be aware that no destinations Goulmima, 2 km (1 mile) east set at an angle opens onto
are signposted. on the road to Erfoud, is worth a second gate. On a small
the detour. Still inhabited, square within the walls stand
the Goulmima ksar, which a mosque and the well that
y Goulmima exemplifies southern Moroccan provides the ksar with water.
defensive architecture, is The upper floors of some of
Road Map D3. @ from Er-Rachidia
and Tinejdad. ( Mon & Thu. surrounded by walls set with the houses span the narrow
two massive towers. Cows and streets, providing a strange
Although it is set in the heart of sheep are enclosed within contrast of light and shadow.
the Rheris oasis, where about 20
ksour stand on the banks of Wadi Morocco’s Architectural Heritage
Rheris, the modern village of
Goulmima is of no great interest The vestiges of past
to visitors. The inhabitants of ages and of a unique way
neighbouring ksour come to of life, kasbahs, ksour and
the village to buy supplies. granaries – all of them
The sturdiness of their built of earth – are the
fortifications make the ksour victims of neglect. The
here unusual. Their towers are kasbahs are crumbling,
remarkably high and, when tribal the once- luxurious
feuds were rife, they protected residences are abandoned
the inhabitants against the and clay walls are slowly
incursions of the Aït Atta, who disappearing into the
came to pillage their harvests. ground. The Moroccan
government seems
indifferent to the unique Detail of the Taourirt kasbah in Ouarzazate
value and interest of these
buildings. Aside from sparse and sporadic activity, action to
protect Morocco’s architectural heritage goes little further than
listing its monuments and drawing up conservation programmes
that produce no concrete results. The only active conservation
in Morocco is that resulting from European initiatives. Besides the
uncompleted restoration of the ksar at Aït Benhaddou, funded
by UNESCO, that of the granary at Igherm-n-Ougdal, on the road
to the Tizi-n-Tichka Pass, and of the Taourirt Kasbah in Ouarzazate,
the small number of kasbahs in the Dadès valley that have been
restored were saved by private funding. Private initiatives are
also responsible for the skilful restoration of the Ben Morro kasbah
and Aït Abou kasbah in Skoura and the Hôtel Tombouctou in
Tinerhir. Unfortunately, most of the Glaoui fort resses in the
The ksar at Goulmima, a labyrinth of valleys of the Atlas are being left to their fate.
narrow streets and alleys

278-279_EW_Morocco.indd 279 09/08/16 11:20 am