Taourirt Kasbah

Taourirt is one of the biggest kasbahs in southern Morocco, built of rammed earth and mud brick on the road that carried caravans between the Draa valley and Marrakech. It is not a single building but a stack: towers, courtyards, storerooms, stables and living quarters piled against each other over generations, housing a ruling family at the top and a whole community of servants, craftsmen and traders below. The best rooms are on the upper floors, with painted ceilings, carved plaster and small windows cut for light and defence, and the roof gives a view over the surviving village of earth houses below. Restoration has been going on for years in stages, so some sections are shored up and others are shut, and the difference between restored and original surfaces is easy to see.

History

Oral tradition says the kasbah was first built in the 17th century by a powerful local family, the Imzwarn; in the 19th century the Glaoui family took it over and enlarged it, at the meeting of the Draa and Dadès valleys on the Saharan trade routes. It was placed on the national heritage list in 1954, sold by the Glaoui family to the municipality in 1972, and from the late 1980s cared for by the CERKAS conservation centre, with a first part restored in the 1990s (Wikipedia, Kasbah Taourirt).

The main sights

• The upper rooms - painted ceilings and carved plaster in the family apartments.
• The stacked plan - courtyards, stores and stairs layered over several floors.
• The roof view - across the old earth village and out to the Atlas.
• The rammed earth walls - pisé construction with the shuttering lines still visible.

When to go

Spring and autumn; Ouarzazate is very hot from June to August and the kasbah has no cooling beyond thick walls. Late afternoon light on the earth walls is the best. It is an easy stop on the way between Marrakech and the Draa valley or the desert.

Things to know

Only a fraction of the complex is open and the rest is either collapsing or closed for works, so the visit is shorter than the size suggests. Guides at the door are effectively compulsory in practice and negotiate their own fee on top of the ticket. The village below is inhabited and poor, and wandering it feels intrusive. Ouarzazate itself is a functional town with little else in the centre.

Nearby

Ait Benhaddou is half an hour west; the Draa valley and Skoura palm groves lie east and south.

Key facts