The Kasbahs in Skoura and the Dadès Valley
Over the course of the centuries an extraordinary architecture has developed in the pre-Saharan areas in the south of Morocco. It concerns fortified dwellings that accommodated extensive families and which have the substance of real castles, sometimes even strongholds. The basic construction material of these refined buildings is raw earth. They are particularly notable for their ornate facades and towers, which give them an impressive appearance. These kasbahs are scattered all over the valleys of the Dadès, Drâa and Ziz Rivers and even up to the foothills of the High Atlas. The Dadès Valley harbors the richest variety. In 1938 the French historian Henri Terrasse described them as follows:
The castles of the Dadès are certainly the finest Berber buildings in Morocco. Nowhere else one finds more successful proportions and varied and harmonious combinations of buildings. The elegance is unparalleled. The pyramidal towers at the four corners have a presence one meets nowhere else.
Initially clan leaders and local dignitaries built these fortified dwellings in or adjacent to ksour (fortified villages). They were manifestations of power and wealth. In most ksour in the nearby Drâa Valley, this evolution from a collective to an individual habitat is still very visible. In the Dadès Valley and especially in the oasis of Skoura this development from ksar (fortified village) to tighremt (free standing fortified house) and kasbah reached full maturity. In the Dadès Valley there’s no question of fortified villages with a closed urbanization but rather of a highly dispersed and organic implantation of the homes in the geographic and agricultural space.
The silhouette of a tighremt is striking in its rugged simplicity. A square floor plan, heavy walls of pisé (rammed raw earth), a single door, a few
openings high up in the wall and on two or four of the corners pyramidal towers with a rather decorative than a defensive function. The superstructure and the towers, built in adobe (sun dried bricks of raw earth), are often lavishly decorated with geometric motifs.
A tighremt (or dar in Arabic) is a domestic dwelling built around a central shaft that illuminates the various levels dimly and provides the necessary air circulation. Through a small corridor one enters the dark ground floor where the supplies and tools were kept. In winter and at night also the livestock was kept there. A staircase leads to the second and possibly third floor where the living quarters are located. One flight up one reaches the roof with its shady galleries and a colorfully painted reception room adjoining guest room.
This elementary basic form recurs often in much more complex configurations with large inner courtyards, five to six storeys, high towers and luxurious reception rooms. These huge structures are called kasbah and had a military function. They served as the house of local rulers and their family. They are often located on strategic positions and also offered shelter to servants, soldiers and, in times of conflict, prisoners.
The Dadès Valley has always been a multicultural area. Today the inhabitants are Berber or Arabic speaking, but until the 1960s there was also an important Jewish community. Their presence is still very tangible. Especially in the region around Skoura the older population still has vivid memories of Jewish childhood friends and neighbors, and the mellahs (Jewish neighborhood) and Jewish cemeteries are still treated with great care.
At present the Dadès Valley is promoted as the “valley of the thousand kasbahs”. For many travelers it is one of the highlights of their journey, and rightly so because this ancient vernacular architecture is stunningly beautiful. Yet, in the Drâa and Dadès valleys, a cultural drama is occurring. During my travels I encountered dozens of kasbahs and tighermatine (plural of tighremt), but only a few were inhabited and maintained. The vast majority are deserted and suffer from a more or less extensive state of decay. There are several reasons for this regrettable trend. The first is depopulation. Great drought and consequently poor harvests have forced the population to migrate. The groundwater level in these areas declined dramatically in recent decades and the khettara (a tunnel system to transport water from the mountains to the oases) are in decay or out of use. A second factor is the desire to live in modern and spacious housing. Although a tighremt looks impressive from the outside, inside it’s a jumble of small, dusty and dark rooms connected through narrow staircases. It’s a habitat that no longer meets modern requirements for comfort, or at least those promoted by external cultural influences such as TV. The third and perhaps most fundamental reason is the complex Moroccan law of succession imposed after independence. Throughout successive inheritances tighermatine and kasbahs end up with dozens of owners. This situation often leads to a deadlock. Heirs rarely or never come to a consensus on how to carry out the necessary maintenance work.
As an answer to this issue, in 1990 the Moroccan government established a rehabilitation centre called CERKAS (Centre de Restoration et de Réhabilitation des zones atlasiques et Sub-atlasiques). The mission of CERKAS is the study, restoration and rehabilitation of ksour, kasbahs, tighermatine and igoudar (fortified granaries). The center drew up an inventory and developed an action plan to revalue the patrimony and proposes a conversion of certain sites for sociocultural and tourist purposes. Ksar Ait Ben Haddou and the Kasbah Taourirt in Ouarzazate were successfully restored and promoted as tourist and cultural destinations. Nevertheless it remains surprising that so few financial resources are found for the preservation of this important world heritage.
Hence the importance to capture the harmony and beauty of this endangered habitat in a photographic testimony for future generations. The images presented here were taken over a period of three years, 2003 – 2005.