March 3rd: Agdz

Agdz is a fertile valley created by the river Draa that rises in the Atlas and peters out 100 miles from Agdz in the Sahara. Apart from this fertile valley, everything is desert. The campsite is in a walled oasis garden with palm trees that provide much-needed shade in the summer when the temperature reaches 50 degrees. It is the hottest part of Morocco.

This is part of the cultivated area that surrounds the campers. It is serviced by irrigation channels connected to a well from which water is pumped every day by an ancient diesel engine.

The kasbah in the photo is owned by the family who run the campsite and is in the process of being renovated by volunteers. They receive free meals and lodgings in the kasbah rooms that have been restored in return for their work.
What we knew of kasbahs before coming here came from corny comedy, the “come into my kasbah!” of Carry On films. It was generally portrayed as a harem type chamber with billowy curtains and lavish eastern decoration, nothing like the fortified tribal village it really is, with walls of mud and straw bricks, or mud and gravel or stones. These bricks are still made in the traditional way as described in Exodus, mixing the mud and the straw, then drying them in the sun for about 7 days. As all good cookery programmes say, here’s one I made earlier:

The restoration work here tries to replicate the original designs and original materials. Although mud-based structures might seem crude to us, once the walls have been rendered (in mud & straw plaster), the decoration can then be as sophisticated as the owner wishes. This is an example from the campsite kasbah, and the result is very pleasing.

The whole building was a warren of rooms and stairways, and we were able to wander around and lose ourselves at will. The last photo is of our group on the kasbah roof against the background of the lush palmery contrasting with the arid mountain in the background.