Exploring the Draa Valley
Ideas for your free time
As you drive down the Draa Valley it really is a succession of impressive and attractive fortifications, seemingly ancient and almost blending from one into the next. Tamnougalt however, manages to stand out. It’s one of the first kasbahs you’ll see, on the opposite river bank from the road and standing in stark isolation on a proud hill above a palm plantation. The kasbah is pleasingly geometric and complete (unlike many others you’ll see), and there’s something about the perfect geometry, the good condition of the walls and exterior decoration, and the setting, which makes Tamnougalt stick in the memory. It’s more of a photo stop than somewhere to explore as it is still inhabited!
Although you’d never know it, Tamegroute, a short distance south of Zagora, was once the preeminent settlement of the whole valley, and the intellectual and spiritual engine of much of southern Morocco. The Zaouia (monastery) Nasiriyya was the seat of a Sufi order, one of the largest and most respected in the world in the 17th Century. This importance made them critical in dispute-resolution, a key role in a time of feuding tribes and caravan raids. The order assembled one of the finest Islamic libraries in Africa and several rare, ancient and important manuscripts can still be found here. The rest of the settlement is interesting to wander around, with narrow, low passages and even alleyways beneath the village.
If you can’t make it all the way to the Erg Chebbi or Erg Chigaga, then a short way south of Zagora is the next best thing: a small, but attractive sand sea at a place called Tinfou. It’s essentially one large dune, sitting in splendid isolation in a vast bowl of stony desert, bounded only by distant, serrated mountain ridges. It’s worth a stop and a picture or two, and is a peaceful spot.
