The Magreb – Photos of the beautiful Berber traditional Morocco Kasbah & Ksar featuring Ait Ben Haddou, Kasbah Taourirt & Telouet & Berber Nomads. Photos by Paul E Williams.
Berber Traditional Morocco Kasbah & Ksar
A Kasbah is the citadel or fortified quarter of a city and a ksar is a fortified village. The Berbers are an ethnic group indigenous of North Africa though spreading into Mauritania and Mali. Between 642 and 669 the Berbers adopted Islam as their religion and joined in the Islamic advances into Europe.
In 711 the Berbers invaded the Iberian Peninsular & took al-Andalus. By 1120 the Almoravid Berber Caliphate held over half of the Iberian Peninsula. The Berber Caliphates had sophisticated courts with scientists, doctors and philosophers. They created a rich civilisation that kept ancient Greek texts alive by translating them into Arabic.
Berber Kasbah & Ksar
They were also great cross Sahara traders who supplied Europe with luxury items from Africa. These wealthy traders built wonderful Kasbah palaces like the Kasbah Taourirt Ouarzazate. To protect the camel trains loaded with valuable goods, the Berbers built Ksars like Ait Ben Haddou. The camel trains would stop there at night and some traders sold their good to merchants of Ait Ben Haddou rather that face the hard journey over the Atlas mountains to the markets of Marrakesh.
The traditional building material for Berber Kasbah and Ksar is mud brick with a smooth rendered mud coating. The exterior walls of the mud brick palaces had traditional Berber geometric designs inlayed into them.
Berber Nomads
There are still some Nomads living in the Altar mountains with their camels and goats. They can still be found living in high altitude caves in the mountains in the summer with camels and flocks off goats.
I can across a Nomad family living on the Tizi n’Uguent Zegsaoun Atlas mountain pass ( Summit 2700m) from Todra to Dades gorges Morocco. They were living in a cave that had been used by Nomads for hundreds and perhaps even thousands of years.
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