Kasbah Tizourgane

Tizourgane sits on a conical hill in the Anti-Atlas between Ait Baha and Igherm - a fortified village rather than a single house, with a wall round the hilltop, a gate, lanes between stone dwellings, a communal granary at the summit and cisterns cut into the rock, of a form that goes back several centuries and belonged to a lineage of the Ida Ou Gnidif. It had emptied as families moved down to the road, and it was restored from the 1990s by a descendant who reopened part of it as a guesthouse and kept the rest as it was. That means the visit is unusually coherent: the defensive logic, the granary, the water storage and the domestic rooms are all legible in one small compound. Around it the Anti-Atlas is terraced with almond, which flowers in February and is the season to time for. The road between Ait Baha and Igherm is itself one of the good drives here.

What to look for

• A fortified hamlet - wall, gate, lanes and a communal granary on a conical hill.
• Rock-cut cisterns - the water storage that made the position defensible.
• Family restoration - repaired from the 1990s by a descendant of the builders.
• Almond terraces - Anti-Atlas country flowering in February around the hill.

When to go

February for almond blossom; October to April otherwise. An hour, or a night.

Things to know

Entry is charged and the guesthouse is the main operation. It is small - an hour covers it unless staying. The approach involves a short steep climb. The roads in this part of the Anti-Atlas are slow.

Nearby

Tafraout is south; Ait Baha and the Souss plain are north-west.

Key facts