Telouet Kasbah

Telouet sits at over eighteen hundred metres beside the old caravan route over the High Atlas, and the kasbah was the seat of a powerful local family that controlled the pass in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most of it is collapsing: roofless rooms, sagging walls of rammed earth, staircases that stop in mid-air, and the whole mass melting slowly back into the hillside. What survives intact is startling by contrast - two upper reception rooms finished in zellij, carved stucco and painted cedar to the standard of a city palace, with stained glass and a roof terrace looking over the valley. The road on from Telouet runs down the Ounila valley past old granaries and villages to Ait Benhaddou, which is a far better drive than the main road.

History

The caravans crossing the Atlas and the nearby salt mines made the wealth of the lords of Telouet. Mohammed Ibiyet, head of the Glaoui clan in the High Atlas, began the present kasbah in 1860; building took 5 years and is said to have involved some 300 craftsmen, many from Fes, who added zellij, carved stucco and painted cedar ceilings in the classical Andalusi-Moroccan style, and the kasbah went on growing with the family's power (Wikipedia, Telouet Kasbah).

Highlights

• The reception rooms - zellij, carved stucco and painted cedar under intact ceilings.
• The ruined wings - roofless halls and stairways of collapsing rammed earth.
• The roof terrace - a view over the valley and the salt workings below.
• The Ounila valley road - the old route on towards Ait Benhaddou past granaries.

When to go

Late spring and early autumn. The pass is high and can be closed by snow in winter, and the side road is rough in places. Mornings are best if you are continuing down the Ounila valley, which takes two to three hours of slow driving to Ait Benhaddou.

Good to know

Large parts are genuinely dangerous and fenced or locked, and there is no interpretation beyond whatever the keyholder tells you, usually in French. Opening depends on someone being there with the key. The access road is narrow with rough sections, and the Ounila valley route beyond is unsuitable for low cars after rain. Photographs of the two good rooms are all you will get.

Nearby

Ait Benhaddou is down the Ounila valley; Ouarzazate lies beyond it to the south.

Key facts