Telouet

Telouet is a village in the High Atlas ( Ouarzazate Province / Region Souss -Massa -Draa ) to Morocco with about 800 inhabitants. It is the ancestral home of the Berber family of Glaoua.

Location

Telouet lies at an altitude of about 1870 meters above sea level. inst and is easily accessible via a paved but potholed road that branches off a few kilometers south of the 2260 -meter-high Tizi n'Tichka Pass to the east. In addition, the former runway of Ait Benhaddou to Telouet has been paved by the Ounila Valley in the years 2010 /2011.

Economy

Lived for centuries largely sedentary inhabitants of the secluded village on the principle of self-sufficiency of their income - partly terraced - fields and some fruit trees. Rain was south of the High Atlas always rare and so the irrigation of the fields was carried out by melt water from the mountains. Livestock played a subordinate role. Nowadays, many men work in the cities of the north or operate as a small hotelier or a tourist guide.

History

Telouet was for centuries a nondescript mountain village in the High Atlas. The town only came into the consciousness of Moroccans and Europeans through the activities of Thami El Glaouis in the first half of the 20th century. He was the scion of a Berber clans who controlled important trade routes for centuries and had become wealthy and influential by protection money through tolls and probable. In 1893, supported and hosted the two brothers Madani († 1918) and Thami El Glaoui ( 1870-1956 ) in the political difficulties Sultan Moulay Hassan stuck; in return granted them the sultan 's political and economic freedoms to the south of the High Atlas. During the colonial era pact El Glaoui - often against the interests of the Sultan - with the French, which the family still ( influential ) could be richer, because the French appointed Thami El Glaoui in return for the Pasha of Marrakech and left him in control of large parts of the Moroccan south and so he also elsewhere build large and representative Kasbahs - for example in Ouarzazate, Skoura, Taliouine, Tinerhir, etc.

When Sultan Mohammed V in the postwar years, the Moroccan independence began more to propagate, he was besieged by the troops of El Glaouis in his palace in Fez ( 1952). El Glaoui advocated the subsequent exile of Sultan to Madagascar. After the return of Mohammed V. (1955 ) El Glaoui switched sides and became reconciled with the Sultan; However, a short time later he died. The entire property of the Glaoua clan was confiscated by the newly founded Moroccan state; the regarded by the population as a foreign body Kasbahs were forgotten and left to gradual decay.

Village

The construction of - depending on the prosperity of the residents - one - or two-storey and usually around a courtyard, in which in former times every evening the livestock (sheep, goats, chickens ) was imprisoned, clustered small farms is characteristic of the mountainous regions of the High Atlas. The buildings were all built from the typical local materials: rubble or boulders in the base area as well - mixed with small stones and plant debris - rammed earth for the exterior walls. The ceiling resting on wooden beams with a mesh of branches in the gaps and reed mats as a support for a layer of earth, which prevented greater damage to the reed mats. The larger and glazed windows were inserted only in the second half of the 20th century in the originally windowless buildings. In the arid region all the houses flat roofs, by the women of the house for a variety of domestic duties ( food preparation, weaving, clothes drying, etc. ) have to be used.

Kasbah

The end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, newly built kasbah El Glaouis is situated on a natural elevation just outside the village and dominates the townscape. Many parts of the building are built from the Moroccan south rather unusual mud brick; other hand, other parts are made of the much more common rammed earth. The whole building was plastered with clay and had parts in a white exterior painting, which was completely uncommon in the Berber areas of southern Morocco. Since the independence of Morocco (1956 ), the Kasbah is uninhabited and falls gradually. In the years 2010/11, although some maintenance tasks were carried out - by this, the decay of the building but only be delayed by a few years.

From the outside makes the mehrtürmige - but already provided with large windows - complex of buildings that equally served the family to residential and ceremonial purposes, has a rather poor impression, but transforms into a certain amazement in the courtyards and in a few rooms of the representation tract: Here the walls and ceiling with tiles, stucco and paintings are decorated whose execution reveals a clear urban - Islamic sense of taste. In fact, were the craftsmen involved no Berbers, but - for a certain period - here from Fes and Marrakech fetched specialists. And El Glaoui saw probably less than Berber prince, because as a true ruler of southern Morocco.

Environment

From Telouet and from about 15 kilometers away, village Anemiter from guided hiking and trekking tours are possible in the mountains of the High Atlas. Through the scenic valley Ounila leads since 2011 a paved road to Ait Benhaddou.