Zaouia Ahansal

Zaouia Ahansal is a cluster of hamlets deep in the Central High Atlas, built round a lodge founded in the thirteenth century by Sidi Said Ahansal, whose descendants acted for centuries as arbiters between the surrounding Amazigh groups - a religious authority that settled disputes over grazing, water and blood in country where no state reached, and which the anthropologist Ernest Gellner studied here and wrote up in Saints of the Atlas. The village keeps the lodge, mosque and tombs, and above it stand agadirs, collective granaries of dry stone built onto cliff ledges where each family had a locked cell. Around are the Ahansal river, the Taghia gorge an hour further, walnut terraces and a landscape of vertical limestone. The road in is rough piste and the village has a few gites; it is one of the more genuinely remote inhabited places in Morocco reachable by vehicle.

What to look for

• A thirteenth-century lodge - a religious authority that arbitrated between Amazigh groups.
• Cliff granaries - dry-stone agadirs with individual family cells on ledges above the village.
• Gellner's field site - the community written up in Saints of the Atlas.
• Vertical limestone - the Ahansal valley and the walls that lead on to Taghia.

When to go

May to October; snow closes the pistes in winter. Two days.

Practical notes

Access is rough piste and four-wheel drive is advisable. There are only a few basic gites and no shops of consequence. Granaries are locked and need a keyholder. Mobile coverage is poor.

Nearby

Taghia gorge is an hour further up; the Cathedral of Imsfrane is downstream.

Key facts