Staying in a kasbah in Morocco

If you can stay in a rajah's palace in Rajasthan, then why not a kasbah in Morocco?

Ouarzazate kasbah

The answer is, quite simply, that Morocco's kasbahs are mostly falling into disrepair and are not fit for tourists to stay in. Enter a new company for the restoration of kasbahs, known as SMVK, which held its first board meeting on 10 June in Ouarzazate.

Yacout reports that in the first phase, a dozen kasbahs will be restored and transformed into tourist facilities. SMVK is a new model of private/public partnership, and will concentrate at first on the Souss-Massa-Draa region.

"Morocco has hundreds of kasbahs some of which are in a state of disrepair", said Yassir Zenagui, Minister of Tourism. "The government cannot restore them. That's why we created the program to upgrade tourism within a framework of public-private partnership," he explained.

The SMVK has already called for expressions of interest. The owners of kasbahs have until 21 June to make contact with the new company. Interested individuals must submit a data sheet detailing the characteristics of their kasbah in terms of historical value, location and interaction with their environment. The Interior Ministry also has plans for the kasbahs which are under its supervision such as Ben Zouli, Tinzouline, Tamdakht El Goumt and Taourirt.

Several partnership options are being considered. Owners can either sell their kasbah, or rent them, or even propose a partnership with SMVK. The whole procedure is intended to have transparency, which the minister says is assured under this guardianship. Tourism establishments that will be created within the kasbah will be administered by specialised management companies such as the large hotel chains.

It's felt that this renovation programme of national heritage will generate economic activity on a regional level. It will create sustainable jobs and improve the marketing of local products. For the first phase of the project, a budget of Dh400 million will be unlocked. But the goal for the initiators of the project is to create a snowball effect. It is hoped that other investors will join the project.

Glaoui's Atlas kasbah to be restored

The Kasbah of Telouet in the High Atlas mountains is being restored, writes Bojan Kveder for the BBC's website today.


This fortress belonging to the el Glaoui family was built around 100 years ago. After Moroccan independence in 1956, the head of the family, T'hami el Glaoui, fell out of favour and the family's assets across Morocco are crumbling.

Once known as 'the Lord of the Atlas', Glaoui had enormous power and instilled fear into all the inhabitants of the Telouet valley. He was also Pasha of Marrakech.

Bojan Kveder takes up the story:

LORD OF THE CASTLE
1893 - T'hami el-Glaoui rescues sultan, is rewarded with arms to consolidate local power
1912 - Helps French seize control, is appointed pasha, or local ruler
1930 - Independence movement is born
1953 - El-Glaoui and the French conspire to depose the sultan
1956 - Morocco gains independence, T'hami dies
He is considered a traitor to this day for siding with the French colonisers and helping to topple two sultans.

At the time of his death in 1956, the Lord of the Atlas was the most powerful man in Morocco and one of the wealthiest men in the world.

Now, the remote village of Telouet is only accessible by a side road branching off from the trans-Atlas highway running from Marrakech to Ouarzazate.

Getting there is a feat in itself. Before embarking on the journey from Marrakech, I combed the city for a travel agency organizing trips there, to no avail. Whoever I asked would respond with shrugging shoulders and a look of consternation mixed with embarrassment.

"Why Telouet? Tourists don't go there. You have so many attractive places to choose from," was the standard reaction.

Finally I managed to find a hole-in-the wall agency with two banged-up 4x4's through my hotel, but the bargaining went on for more than a day.

The road from Marrakech snakes through lush green valleys interspersed with brown mud-brick Berber villages that look exactly as they did centuries ago, except for a few satellite dishes on their flat roofs.

But as the altitude changes, the landscape becomes barren and forbidding - green is replaced by a uniform ochre and red. The ascent culminates in the Tizi-n-Tichka mountain pass, the highest in the Atlas at 2,500 metres, where the air is thin and people are nervous.

When you finally rattle to a stop in Telouet after innumerable hairpin bends, enormous potholes, and a mouthful of dust, what strikes you is the eerie stillness of the place, occasionally interrupted by the flapping of a vulture's wings.

entrance to the kasbah

The Kasbah still stands proudly, perched on top of hill like a latter-day Dracula's castle, exuding an air of both dilapidated elegance and deathly hopelessness.

Gone are the days when the severed heads of foes of the el Glaoui clan were displayed on spikes on the ramparts, or when the dungeon was brimming with real or imagined criminals waiting to be ransomed on barely life-sustaining rations.

But an air of faded glory, conspicuous wealth and savage brutality permeates the Kasbah's quarters like the incessant hot breeze blowing through their empty corridors.

What I did not expect to find was a group of workmen renovating part of the interior that has miraculously survived the decades of decrepitude and disgrace.

parts of the kasbah have been restored

The contrast between the near-rubble of one part of the castle and the elaborately renovated stucco pillars, mosaics, ceiling panels and Moorish doorways was stark. For the time-being only the central reception rooms have been refurbished, but the rest will soon follow.

I asked the guardian of the Kasbah who was footing the bill for the construction work. "T'hami's family", Hamid the guardian replied curtly, without wishing to delve into more detail.

I asked if I could visit the dungeon. "No, it's been filled with bricks and walled up," Hamid replied.

"Why? Too many unclaimed skeletons?"

"The ceiling might cave in," he answered dryly.

Others in the village outside were not willing to discuss the subject either.

"Oh yes, he was the great lord of this place," M'hamed the waiter at a nearby tea tent told me sarcastically. "Great lord of the south. But look at the place now, where's the great lord now? What's left?"

M'hamed, an indigo turban on his head, is dark skinned, like many people living in the little shanty town in the shadow of the Kasbah.

They are descendants of hundreds of el-Glaoui's slaves, who built their humble abodes around the castle after their master's fortunes declined.

I wondered what all this actually meant - is the Pasha of Marrakech being unofficially rehabilitated, more than 50 years since his demise and three kings later, by the grandson of the ruler he betrayed?

Because of T'hami el-Glaoui, French political jargon has become enriched by the verb glaouiser, which means "betray", and Moroccans know this all too well.

An El-Glaoui door (pic: Sandy McCutcheon)

Born in 1879 to the caid - or baron - of Telouet and his Ethiopian concubine, el-Glaoui's fortunes rose in 1893 when he and his brother saved the sultan from a blizzard and starvation after he got stuck in the mountains on a tax-gathering expedition.

As a token of appreciation the ruler presented the brothers with a 77-mm Krupp cannon, which was then used to subdue rival warlords in the area.

T'hami sided with the encroaching French at the start of the 20th Century, for which he was rewarded by being given a free hand in "pacifying" the south, as well as a sizable slice of the area's economic pie - the olive and saffron trade, salt and mineral mines.

He is also said to have had a cut in the income of Marrakech's "Quartier Reserve", or red light district.

El-Glaoui was Pasha of Marrakech from 1912, when the French protectorate was established, to 1956.

He also had a sprawling palace in Marrakech, the Dar el-Glaoui, where he held lavish banquets and entertained the likes of Winston Churchill and Charlie Chaplin.

In 1953 he attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Churchill's invitation, hoping to be knighted. He presented the new queen with spectacular gifts, which were refused.

The knighthood never happened.

That year el-Glaoui turned his attentions closer to home - he conspired with the French to overthrow Sultan Muhammad V and install an alternative less receptive to the growing independence movement.

The move cost him and his family dearly, as the sultan returned in 1955, when the French realized that Morocco was descending into chaos and granted it independence the next year.

The same year el-Glaoui died a broken man, betrayed by the French whose rule he propped up so meticulously.

Because of his opposition to the independence movement and role in overthrowing the reigning monarch, his property was seized by the state and his Kasbah fell into disrepair.

More than half a century later, I was followed around the Kasbah's terracotta paradise by the guardian's son Ahmed and his moth-eaten dog.

"Why did you bring the dog in?" I asked.

"Why not?"

I reminded him of the local saying: "When a dog enters a Moroccan house, the angels fly away."

"No angels here," Ahmed replied. "If ever there were any, they're long gone now".

Fabulous zelij tile work done by artisans from Fez. (pic Sandy McCutcheon)

The View from Fez recommends Gavin Maxwell's The Lords of the Atlas for the fascinating history of this family. If you'd like to see some el Glaoui splendour in Fez, the Glaoui Palace can be found in Ziat. For a tour, phone Abdou on 0667 366 828 to make an appointment. The estate has around 17 houses, stables, a mausoleum and cemetery, Qur'anic school, hammam, garages and two large gardens. The decoration in the main houses is well worth the visit, and the kitchen is huge enough to serve the entire complex.

In Morocco with Prince of Persia

Disney's new Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, to be released on 28 May, was filmed in Morocco, around Ouarzazate, Marrakech and Merzouga.


This costume/adventure movie was directed by Mike Newell, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and stars Jake Gyllenhall, Ben Kingsley, Gemma Arterton and Alfred Molina.

The story revolves around Gyllenhaal's character, a rogue prince, who joins forces with a mysterious princess to prevent an ancient dagger from releasing the Sands of Time — gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world.

The View from Fez came across these quirky facts at tv.com:

AIM HIGH — The first shooting location for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was at an altitude of 8,200 feet in the mountain village of Oukmaiden in the High Atlas Mountains, surrounded by indigenous Berber communities. The cast and crew had to acclimate themselves before proceeding with the demanding action sequences filmed there.

SANDS OF TIME, INDEED — The production battled ferocious sandstorms in of Ouarzazate, Morocco.

HEATED — Morocco offered 100+-degree Fahrenheit temps during production. Massive, air-conditioned tents were erected at the Lycee Hassan II school in Marrakesh. One, which was the size of a football field, housed wardrobe, hair and makeup for the film's background players. And adjoining tent was built just for washing and drying. It was a mind-blowing 124 degrees on the last day of Moroccan filming (Merzouga Sand Dunes outside of Erfoud). According to Morocco Facilities Manager Gregoire Mouveau, during filming in that country the Prince of Persia company consumed 1,114,894 bottles of water.

OSTRICHES — Typical warnings on call sheets in Morocco: 'PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH THE OSTRICH ON SET TODAY' or 'BEWARE – SNAKES & SCORPIONS CAN BE FOUND AT THIS LOCATION UNDER AND AROUND THE ROCKS. BE CAUTIOUS.'

IT TAKES A VILLAGE — In Morocco, there were a combined 1,350 cast and crew members, including 800 local Moroccans. Adding the 500 people working in post-production, the total cast and crew amounted to more than 1,850.

SNAKE DUDE — A local Moroccan was hired to clear the shooting areas in the desert of a vipers and scorpions. Donning a t-shirt emblazoned with "Snake Dude," he was easy to spot.

LOCAL LANDMARKS — The Nasaf marketplace and city gates were built adjacent to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Ait Ben Haddou, but the original structure was untouched by the filmmakers.

DAGGERS — Some 20 different versions of the Dagger which holds the Sands of Time were fabricated for the film — from the "hero" version, made of steel, to latex versions, created for stunt sequences.

OSTRICH RACES AND ROMANCE — The only other ostrich race scene other than the one shot for Prince of Persia was for another Disney movie — the 1960 version of Swiss Family Robinson. The moment in which Alfred Molina, as Sheikh Amar, kisses his favorite ostrich on the neck was completely unscripted. "I thought I would either get my eye poked out," notes Molina, "or that I would get away with a funny moment."

STRAIGHT TO THE SOURCE — The film's parkour adviser is none other than France's David Belle, who actually invented parkour.

A NUMBERS GAME — The exterior set of Alamut, designed by Wolf Kroeger, was constructed around the actual 700-year-old walls of the village of Tamesloht, 20 kilometers southwest of Marrakesh. It required 30 miles of scaffold tubing and 400 tons of plaster, with 350 members of the construction crew. The colorful frescoes and mural paintings which adorn the set were painted in seven weeks. The Alamut Eastern Gate set built at Pinewood Studios' "007 Stage," also designed by Wolf Kroeger, required 3,000 eight-by-four-foot sheets of wood, 70,000 feet of three-by-one inch timber, and 40 tons of casting plaster for moldings. It was constructed in a relatively brief 14 weeks.

ARMED AND DANGEROUS — Armorer Richard Hooper and his department fabricated 3,500 individual items, including swords, shields, spears, axes, arrows, bows, quivers, scabbards, bow cases, daggers and Hassansin weapons.

EPIC A.D. — Working on the film for a few days at Pinewood Studios in England was legendary British assistant director Michael Stevenson, who knows a thing or two about epics having worked on Lawrence of Arabia, The Fall of the Roman Empire, Doctor Zhivago, The Charge of the Light Brigade and Barry Lyndon.

COSTUMES — With more than 7,000 costumes created and fabricated for the film, costume designer Penny Rose's wardrobe department exceeded that of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, which she also served as costume designer.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE — The patchwork coats worn by Alfred Molina as Sheikh Amar were made from Indian bedspreads sewn together. Their shredded look, revealing the different layers of fabric, was achieved by rubbing cheese graters across the coats. Other costumes were aged by throwing them into a cement mixer with stones.

MULTI-CULTURED COSTUMES — Costume designer Penny Rose discovered fabrics used for the film's costumes in locales as diverse as India, Thailand, Italy, France, Malaysia, China, Great Britain and, of course, Morocco.

THE UNCLE'S NEW CLOTHES — The character who has the most wardrobe changes is not Tamina, played by the beautiful Gemma Arterton, but Nizam, portrayed by Sir Ben Kingsley.

And we'll add another quirky fact of our own: despite hundreds of Moroccans involved in the making of the film, there's no cinema in Ouarzazate for them to see the results of their efforts!

Morocco allocates $15 million to restore kasbahs and ksours

Kasbah in Ouarzazate

On a recent trip around Morocco, it was very noticeable that many of the countries kasbahs (walled forts) and ksours (walled villages) were in need of repair. It is, of course true that being built from stone and adobe, they are subject to the natural erosion caused by rains and storms. According to one expert, the life of a kasbah can be as short as fifty years before it needs major repair or rebuilding.

Now comes the good news. The Moroccan Minister of Housing, Toufiq Hejira (pictured left) has announced the allocation of 123 million dirhams (15 million U.S. dollars) to restore a large number of kasbahs and ksours.

The restoration works of seventeen kasbahs has already been completed or is nearing completion in the southern regions of Errachidia, Erfoud and Rissani, while the restoration work on fourteen other ksours and kasbahs is under way.

Ksour houses in need of repair

On the measures to cope with the impact of the recent rainfalls, Hejira said that a committee has been established to coordinate between the different departments concerned.

He also noted that some 135 families have benefited from land lots to build their homes, as well as the necessary financial and technical assistance.

Part of a derelict ksour

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news