M'Zab Valley

When you drive south on the Trans-Sahara highway and arrive at the valley you won't believe there is such a bustling town here, or rather, towns. The view is nice. I'm less impressed with the old towns though.

First off, you need a guide. There wasn't a guide, I would have liked one but I think these days they just don't have people hanging around waiting for tourists as there aren't any. I just walked in, no guards, nobody minded, as long as you keep walking and don't stare around like a tourist. It's easy to get lost in these narrow passages but it seems to keep going. Felt like a mix between other sites, but it did not feel special either. I think the tangible essence of the site is not very obvious and many places around the world have these kind of living conditions. I did not enter the mosque by the way, as there was another clear sign not to enter.

I went to one more afterwards and it was the same experience. They luckily spare these housing areas from all the new development springing up all over the valley, although we aren't talking skyscrapers so it's actually well done and keeps the valley looking the same. The whole visit I didn't see a single UNESCO sign.

Site visited December 2013. My visit to M'Zab Valley WHS could be categorized ’nearly missed’ due to the riots that took place in Ghardaïa that time. But I consider it as visited though not extensively. In many aspects my visit became totally different than I had expected.

There were lot of things that went wrong on my trip. The problems started already when I flew from Constantine to Ghardaïa via Algiers. Air Algérie is notorious for its unreliability and I fell victim to that. The whole story is too long to tell here but all I want to say is that it was very eventful travel day. I was lucky that I made it to the Ghardaïa plane just before its departure.

I was happy when I arrived late in the evening in Ghardaïa but I was totally unaware what waited for me there. At the airport the policeman escorted me to the taxi. The hotel staff was a little bit surprised when they saw a tourist. Next morning they made it clear that they don’t let me out of the hotel on my own. They told me that the situation is very serious and it is not safe to visit the famous ksours. The receptionist said that there has been violent ethnic clashes between Arabs and Mozabite Berbers. She told that people throw cobblestones to shop windows, burn houses and dig bodies from the graves. There had been fatalities. The receptionist also said that she don't understand why this …

On a Friday there are no official guides at the entrance gate of the old city of Ghardaia, nevertheless it is compulsory, and I have to ask the help of the military and police officials. But luckily some diplomats from Algiers showed up, and I was able to join them, not only for Ghardaia, but also the sister village of Beni Isguen; we walk up to the local mosque, always the highest point of a Mozabite town. The paths are very narrow, good for donkeys, but nothing else. In summer time when the temperatures rise to above 50 degrees, the locals relocate to the palm oasis below. We also visit the cemetery where ‘another one bites the dust’ does not have to be further explained, there are no graves, no flowers, just stones and sand from the Sahara. Beni Isguen is home to the Mozabite women, clad entirely in white, and revealing only one eye to the outside world.

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) …

My visit here was in 1991 so memories have faded somewhat after more than 16 years. I do know however that this is one of the most interesting areas in Algeria and should be on the itinerary of anyone visiting the country. Five small towns, of which Ghardaia is by far the largest, sit in a valley surrounded by barren desert.The valley has thousands of palm trees and a complex water supply system. I also visited two other of the towns, Beni Isguen and Melika.

The people here tend to have held themselves apart from the main current of Algerian history and are Berber with conservative religious views. The men wear (wore?) the low hanging baggy trousers as seen in parts of rural Turkey while the women dress in an allover white garment folded in such a way that only one eye is visible.

Each town stands on top of a small hill with its mosque, usually with a distinctive pyramidal minaret, at its centre. Most of the buildings are cream painted and well maintained. There are alleyways and daily markets (in which dates figure very large) to explore and in Beni Isguen a museum of local life. Locally painted signs advise the visitor on the modest dress expected to be worn.

Not many laughs here perhaps but with an atmosphere unlike anywhere else I saw in Algeria.