November 09, 2014
Sunday
Submitted by
Colleen Hessler

2014 MOROCCO TOUR
GROUP JOURNAL
OARZAZETTE - KSAR AIT BEN HADDOU - TOURUDENT

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As we leave our hotel in Oarzazette, the sun is shining but a cool breeze blows through the city.
We start our day by walking through the narrow allies of the kasbah where local venders sell their crops in these back streets. We stopped in a shop where the vender is selling all local spices and the aromas are a treat to our sense of smell. In the narrow streets which all looked alike, following Meli we got lost. A group of young man offered to show the way for 30 Dirhems, but we did not accept the offer. Then a beautiful lady realized how desperate we were, with a big smile on her face, led us to the "sortie de le kasbah". We then toured Taourit Kasbah with an excellent guide, Mohammed. The kasbah was at one time a place to rest and stop over for the people coming in from the Atlas, Draa, and Dadis Valley to do business. We climbed a maze of stairwells to the top floors where we seen a prayer room and an original tataoui ceiling. The kasbah is made of clay mud and stone and has four towers. A kasbah was usually situated by a river for means of water as the people who  gathered were nomadic Berber, Arabic and Jewish. The word "KASBAH" means reeds by the river.

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The Palace                                                                                            The Stork Nest                                                                                                                                             An ordinary house at the casbah

Once aboard the van, we drive out of Oarzazette to see another Kasbah, Eid Ben Haddou, where we were going to hike up the hill to have a panoramic view of the stone desert. Mother nature had other things in her mind as the winds got stronger and the rain rolled in but all was not last as she gave us a beautiful rainbow to see.

On our drive to Tourudent we came upon sand storms and flash flooding and finally arrived at 06:00 pm to our hotel Palais Selam. Along the way we seen argan trees and learned that Morocco is the only country that uses the fruit to extract the oil. We also seen a lot of citrus grooves behind cement walls which will be harvested for exporting.