Silver Passion in Tiznit For The Silver Festival

The Moroccan city of Tiznit is hosting the fourth edition of the Timizart silver festival, which runs through August 24.

Opening yesterday with the theme ''Silver: passion, creation and development'', the festival aims to promote Tiznit as a tourist destination by highlighting local craft and design skills. These have been handed down through the ages and are a symbol of its civilization, one which can be leveraged for economic development.

The festival includes a fair displaying silverware and other silver products, demonstration workshops, a fashion show featuring traditional clothes and jewellery, equestrian and other traditional shows, and academic conferences on the anthropological aspects of the amazigh civilisations.

Organizers hope to replicate the success of Timizart's third edition, which was attended by 200,000 people. There are more than 150 shops and workshops involved in silver production in the city.

Located near the coast, Sultan Moulay Hassan settled in Tiznit in 1881 to exert his control over dissident Berber tribes of the Souss. In 1912, Ahmed al-Hiba (El Hib), a populist rebel overthrew the French government and proclaimed himself sultan of Tiznit in the town's mosque. He conquered the Sous by uniting the tribes of the Anti Atlas Mountains and the Tuareg. He went on to attack Marrakech but was suppressed by the French.

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