salam

Morocco Frequently Asked Questions
The Morocco FAQ has been maintained since 1992 by Jey Burrows with the help of many travellers on rec.travel.misc, rec.travel.africa, and other net places. Amendments, extensions, criticisms and praise are invited. Travel information can change rapidly, and your help is requested in keeping this guide up to date - please contact the FAQ keeper (=jey).


Please note that the main, and most recently updated FAQ, is the frames version. To receive the latest information on Morocco, please ensure you use a frames-capable browser and visit the main page at http://www.rhizomatics.demon.co.uk/travel/morocco.html.
This FAQ lives in the following locations (note that the rec.travel archive sites are usually several months, or even years, behind the latest revision) :-

Ouarzazate & South
The town stands in the middle of an arid plateau that contrast sharply with the slopes and vegetation of the nearby High Atlas. It enjoys an exceptional climate and occupies a geographic location at the cross-roads of the main routes leading to the Draa, Dadès and Sous Valleys. It boasts an international airport. The tourist and craft industries have expanded rapidly in recent years. The town is also ideally situated in relation to regional trade and is renowned for its pottery and carpets.
The whole south of Morocco is summarised in the historical traditional and exotic sounding word "OUARZAZATE".
In OUARZAZATE everything is calm, beautiful and fresh - the very image of the authentic south of Morocco, where time has stood still for centuries.
At 1160 m altitude, OUARZAZATE is a settlement of some twenty thousand inhabitants and offers all amenities of a modern city.

morocco
Morocco is a country with a fascinating history. Diplomats of ancient Phoenicia and Rome were posted here. The people are open and hospitable to outsiders. The culture is artistic and creative, deeply religious, yet essentially moderate in temperament. The climate is mild and the cuisine is terrific! Morocco truly is the gateway to the Mediterranean and a unique mixture of Africa and the Middle East.



Rabat is a very livable city, with good roads and housing, a large international community, and many nearby opportunities for recreation. There are sports, shopping, and travel to a wide range of exotic destinations, such as the medieval city of Fes, the wind-swept dunes of the Sahara, and the relaxed beach town of Essaouira. In addition, Spain, France and Portugal are easily accessible, as is the Rock of Gibraltar. It is hard to imagine anyone failing to look back with great affection on a tour of duty in Morocco.

kasbahs in south of morocco casltes
my village imider
Castle in the air ... perched on a rocky outcrop in the High Atlas Mountains, the restored Kasbah du Toubkal has won awards for its commitment to sustainable tourism.

The High Atlas Mountains feel like a long way away. The name alone suggests grandeur and remoteness, and the reality doesn't disappoint. Majestic and largely empty, they could double for the Himalayas in Tibet. Which, of course, they already have - in Martin Scorsese's film Kundun.

But the truth is that they are only an hour and half's drive from Marrakech and a three-hour flight from London. So, in theory, you could be walking along some of the highest points in Africa in less time than it takes you to get to the Lake District. If you really want to put a bit of space between yourself and the cluttered, chaotic world you live in, these mountains can be your sanctuary for a long weekend.

Added to this, you don't even have to rough it in a mountain refuge. Instead, you stay in a restored kasbah perched at 1,800 metres in the shadow of Morocco's highest peak, Mount Toubkal, for less than a Caid's ransom.

Kasbah du Toubkal is the sort of place you might expect to see in the Hip Hotel books, and one that you will find yourself recommending to anyone who mentions that they are even considering a trip to Morocco. There's a rooftop terrace where a lunch of lamb and fig tagine is served against a backdrop of jagged, snow-capped peaks - "the best rooftop views in Africa", according to Condé Nast Traveller, and where you are welcome to sleep under the sheltering skies if you wish to do so; a hamman to ease aching muscles and joints after a day's hiking; and the eight double rooms, garden house and three communal salons - the latter can accommodate 22 people and are often used by school parties - have been furnished by local Berber craftsmen using local materials and building techniques.

Amazigh Arts in Morocco
By Cynthia Becker


Table of Contents
Introduction
Table of Contents
A Note on Transcription and Transliteration
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One. Ait Khabbash Textiles: Weaving Metaphors of Identity
Chapter Two. The Art of Dressing the Body
Chapter Three. Dance Performances: Negotiating Gender and Social Change
Chapter Four. Women as Public Symbols of Identity: The Adornment of the Bride and Groom
Chapter Five. Performing Amazigh Gender Roles: Wedding Ceremonies
Chapter Six. Oh, My Sudanese Mother: The Legacy of Slavery in Ait Khabbash Art
Chapter Seven. Contemporary Amazigh Arts: Giving Material Form to Amazigh Consciousness
Appendix 1. Selected Songs from Ait Khabbash Weddings
Notes
References
Index
Introduction
When I first arrived in Morocco in 1993 with the intention of learning about Berber art, I soon discovered that women rather than men were the artists in Berber societies. Berber women wove brightly colored carpets. They decorated their faces with tattoos, dyed their hands and feet with henna, and painted their faces with saffron. They also embroidered brightly colored motifs on their indigo head coverings and wore elaborate silver and amber jewelry. Women both created the artistic symbols of Berber identity and wore them on their bodies, making the decorated female body a public symbol of Berber identity.

These connections and intersections of art, gender, and identity are the subject of this book. This study considers women and their participation in the process of identity construction by examining the centrality of the textiles, jewelry, and other art forms created by women to the social relations and ethnic identity of the Berbers of Morocco, the indigenous peoples of North Africa. Unlike Arab groups in North Africa, in Berber societies women rather than men are the primary producers of art, and women's arts identify the group as Berber. This examination, in addition to revealing a rich body of art, is meant to illuminate the complexity of women's roles in the Islamic societies of Africa and to demonstrate the role of women's agency in negotiating complex social and religious issues. Its central argument is that women's control over the visual symbols of Berber ethnic identity grants them power and prestige yet also restricts them to specific roles in that society.