The 5 inscribed towns of the M’zab valley are, despite the lack of tourists currently visiting Algeria, one of its (relatively) “honey pot” sites and about the only place where we met other tourists in Dec 2012. What draws them is primarily the feeling that one is entering a closed society as evidenced in both the design and architecture of the towns and the culture of their people. The architecture is regarded as having influenced a number of modern architects – particularly Le Corbusier who visited in 1931 and 33 (at least, since he spent a lot of time in Algeria). The culture is that of the Mozabite people - a Berber tribe, most of whom are Ibadi Muslims. They reached the M’zab valley around 1010 AD after being expelled by the Sunni Fatamids from their earlier home in the north which had become Ibadi around 770 AD under the Rustamid dynasty which had a Persian origin (today the World’s largest Ibadi community is in Oman). The circumstances of their choice of M’zab came about from the need for defense and security – the hills above the valley are still scattered with watch towers, the towns are designed as fortresses and partaking in the overnight guard duty is still an important aspect of Mozabite male culture. They remained independent through to the 19th C, first concluding an agreement with France in 1853 to maintain it and finally succumbing in 1882. Ibadi religious belief favours “dissociation” from (but not hostility towards) those who don’t share their world view. We felt we gained greatly from having a Mozabite guide with us all the time – the non-tangible aspects of Mozabite culture interact significantly with Mzab’s visible sights but you need explanation and discussion to understand both.

Across 2 days we visited 4 of the towns and also paid a visit out to the Date Palm Groves of Ghardaia. In theory, one is not allowed to enter the towns through the limited number of gates in the walls without a local guide – notices to that effect are at every gate, though guides are only available at the “main” entrance”. Our Mozabit guide throughout Algeria happened to be from Ghardaia but he was still punctilious about picking up a guide from the guide office (who actually added little to what he said) apart from a quick traverse we made through Melika and the visit to the date palm groves – where we visited that one belonging to his family. A male in inconspicuous clothes might get away without a guide (not all men wear the traditional “baggy” trousers!!) but I wouldn’t bank on it and it is perhaps a site where a guide can be useful. A female is going to stand out like a sore thumb as all the local women go out totally covered in white with just a small gap for one eye! We were told that the “guide” rule even applied to Algerians from Algiers. The other “rule” which is applied somewhat aggressively at times is “no photography of people” – especially the ladies in white. This can be interpreted as meaning even if they are 100 metres away and you are photographing a building. Some of the ladies are accompanied by family “minders” and, on one occasion, there was a slightly tense situation where one of our small group was made to delete a photograph for just having taken a “long shot”. You will have to make up your own mind about the legitimacy of their desire not to be photographed in the streets of their town and whether (as is possible) you try to break the rule!

A guided trip through each of the 3 main towns takes around 1-1.5 hours. You could manage 4 in a day but generally the timetable is oriented to less than this with a very long lunch break (even in winter when it isn’t really very hot!). All the towns except El Atteuf (which is about 10 kms away) are very close together. Ghardaia is by far the largest. It should be mentioned that these are no isolated desert oases. The Ghardaia area is growing rapidly, its economy fed by the nearby Gas fields (and we were told that gas has just been found under Ghardaia itself – an interesting future issue for UNESCO!). A large new town has been built above the valley with an Industrial estate and a University. The roads are busy with traffic – except of course inside the towns and in the palm groves. All of the towns we visited had bilingual Arabic/French signs with UNESCO logos at the entrance and at significant points within them. The towns are in essence all very similar – narrow concentric streets with alleyways between leading up to a summit mosque. The towns have often been extended over the centuries and contain a series of walls and gates. Specific “highlights” of each town were as follows -

a. El Attouf

The main “speciality” is the Mausoleum/Mosque of Sidi Brahim – A striking, low, white building with irregularly curved thick exterior walls, small windows and interior arches. It is claimed to be Le Corbusier’s inspiration for Ronchamp (photo)

b. Beni Isguen

The Boulila tower at the summit can be entered and climbed – giving a fine view over the whole M’zab valley.

c. Melika

Contains the Tomb and Mausoleum of Sheikh sidi Aissa, a photo of which has been used by UNESCO on its web site to represent Mzab. The impression given, wrongly, by the photo is that the white structures are large buildings – in fact they are small tombs situated just outside Melika in a compound next to the town cemetery. It can be visited therefore without entering the town proper which, as the smallest of the 5, doesn’t operate a guide system and (like the 5th town of Bou Noura, we were told) doesn’t want visitors anyway (though we walked through its main street to our vehicle which had parked on the other side – it contained nothing of particular note beyond what we had seen in the other towns!)

d. Ghardaia

The market square just outside the city walls is the valley’s prime “tourist shopping” area – mainly carpets and dates! Inside the walls are yet more alleyways and arches leading up to the biggest of the minarets – but this one can’t be climbed. After having seen 3 towns already we found the trip out to the town’s date palm groves (each town has its own) of more interest (c 2hrs with lots of explanation about the “social background”. The palm groves are maintained by an irrigation system which moves water underground through the groves and divides it according to the numbers of palms, This, like everything else in M’zab, is maintained and run by a complex social system of shared actions and responsibilities – the Mozabites operate at least partially outside the secular Algerian state when running and policing their society. Although the palm groves were originally only inhabited during the summer and autumn harvest period, the pressure of population etc seemed to be ending that practice. A notable sight was the high water mark of the disastrous flood of 2008 which reached 2 metres – signs of destruction of buildings and palms were still widespread.

On the whole the tangible “sights” at this WHS were less noteworthy than I had hoped and expected, but the UNESCO web site comments that they are “the achievement of a group of human beings defined by clearly defined religious, social and moral ideals.” To get the most from the site it is worthwhile trying to discover this latter aspect - the 2 elements combined make it an interesting and worthwhile visit.