Bhalil

Bhalil is built on a slope of soft rock above Sefrou, and a substantial number of its houses are troglodyte in the back: the front rooms are ordinary built structures painted in bright colours, and behind them one or more rooms are cut directly into the hillside, used as kitchen, store or living space because they stay cool in summer and warm in winter. Several hundred are said to be occupied this way. Families open their houses to visitors informally, show the cave rooms and serve tea, in exchange for a donation, and the arrangement is unregulated - which means it is genuine and also that you should agree what you are giving. The village also has a long-standing trade in djellaba buttons, made by hand by women working with thread, and a story about pre-Islamic Christian origins that is local tradition rather than established history.

What you actually see

• Cave back rooms - houses with ordinary painted fronts and rock-cut rooms behind.
• Cool in summer - the reason the rooms are used, and still are.
• Informal hosting - families showing their houses and serving tea for a donation.
• Button making - hand-worked djellaba buttons as a village trade.

When to go

Spring and autumn. Half a day, combined with Sefrou.

Honest expectations

These are private homes and the arrangement is informal - agree the donation beforehand. Children ask for money and pens in the lanes. Lanes are steep. There is no visitor infrastructure at all.

Nearby

Sefrou and its medina are south; Fes is north-west.