North Africa ‘Plus’ Travel Diary

2011

 

After yesterday’s fascinating experiences in Ghardaïa, I couldn’t wait for today’s explorations to begin.  So while Tim showered, I took a pre-breakfast walk through the “palmeries” (the palm gardens) near our guesthouse to explore the canals, wells, irrigation ditches and gardens.  It was a beautiful sight in the early morning light, even though the canals were all dry (being summer) and there were very few people - just one man and his ass - to be seen.

After another great breakfast of unbelievably fresh French-style baguettes and juice, we headed off to the oldest and most easterly of Ghardaïa’s five towns, El-Atteuf.  Upon arrival, we were met by the town’s sheriff, a larger than life character named Mhamed Brahtm who dutifully introduced himself in Hong Kong style by producing his name card.  Unlike the more orthodox name cards I have been used to in Asia, though, this one featured his photograph pointing a large gun towards the camera.  Notwithstanding this introduction, he was delighted to show us around his town, talking informatively and very loudly (in fact, shouting) in an excited and animated manner as he explained El-Atteuf’s features.

El-Atteuf is another one of Ghardaïa’s more conservative towns, and we were asked not to take any photographs with women in them.  As if to highlight the women’s modesty, we were shown several small alcoves at the sides of the laneways where the women go to stand with their backs to the outside to hide themselves if they see a man approaching.

Like Ghardaïa, the town that we explored in depth yesterday, El-Atteuf is built on a hill with a mosque at the top, and a labyrinth of narrow laneways criss-crossing the approaches.  In El-Arreuf’s case, there are also numerous water wells, the dates of which follow the history and expansion of the town.  Unlike the other towns we have seen in and around Ghardaïa, El-Atteuf also displayed signs (in Arabic) on many of the street corners with quotes from the Qu’ran and from the prophets of the Ibadi sect.

Perhaps the highlight of our visit to El-Atteuf, apart from soaking up the atmosphere simply by walking along the town’s remarkable laneways, was the small, white mosque of Sidi Brahim.  About 700 years old, the mosque was a simple white building with curved walls, arches and inclined pillars made from palm trunks, with separate areas for male and female worshippers.  The simple lines of the mosque, its use of natural light, its effective ventilation and its great acoustics were apparently the inspiration for the famous French architect, Le Corbusier, when he designed the Chapel Notre-Dame-du-Haut in Ronchamp, France.

After an all-too-short time, we bade farewell to Mhamed Brahtm and El-Atteuf, and after a quick drive to the top of a nearby hill for a photographic vantage point to capture the whole village, we returned to Ghardaïa for a cool drink and a couple of purchases.  Our drive back to the guesthouse for lunch and our afternoon siesta (a great tradition in this hot climate!) took a slight deviation via Melika, another of Ghardaïa’s five villages, where we climbed to a hilltop cemetery for what was probably the best view have yet had of Ghardaïa and the dry bed of the River M’Zab that runs beside it.

Lunch was another feast of local produce (tomatoes, lettuce, a tomato-based stew with couscous, and baguette), after which we rested - like the locals - through the heat of the day by having a siesta until setting off again at 5:30 pm.

Our late afternoon destination was the nearby town of Beni Isguen, probably the most conservative of all Ghardaïa’s towns, with a reputation for scholarship and koranic study.  It was made very clear to us upon entering the walls of the town that no photographs would be allowed of any people, not just the women but the men also.

After meeting our compulsory guide, we proceeded to the market square where the daily “Marché à la Criée” had begun.  This comprised some of the town’s men laying out their second hand goods (scrap metal, ancient radios, broken odds and ends) on the ground, while other men crowded around and engaged in a kind of auction.  Because people were present, photography was forbidden, but to be honest, it was not very photogenic anyway - think looking at the backs of a small crowd of about thirty men, all standing, looking down at the ground at what appears to be broken junk retrieved from a dump (i.e. the merchandise), surrounded by a few old motor bikes and a few dozen broken plastic packing crates.

Having experienced the “Marché à la Criée”, we walked through the town, ascending upwards along the broken steps of the deteriorating streets, past the mosque, and to the Borj Cheikh el-Hadj (also known as Borj Boleila), an 18th century lookout tower in the western corner of Beni Isguen.  We were able to climb to the top, from which we enjoyed stunning views over the town and the surrounding area in the golden glow of the late afternoon sun.

From the tower, one of the town’s distinctive characteristics was readily apparent - the use of sky blue paint on some interior walls, rooftop walls and window surrounds.  Apparently it has been found that flies are repelled by the light blue colour, and this natural technique has been used for centuries in Beni Isguen as an interesting early example of sustainable town planning.

We descended from the tower, and walked back to the market square, passing an interesting date tree.  It had been planted centuries ago next to a well where people used the water for washing, the reason being to use the excess water and make the point that water is a precious commodity.  As we walked through the market square, most of the steps at the fronts of the shops and houses were occupied by the town’s men, all dressed in white robes, discussing profound issues involving the town’s politics (or so the ‘gossip’ was explained to us).

Just before we exited from the town’s main gate, we spent a few minutes exploring a small museum that had been set up to show the layout of a typical Mozabite home in the town, together with the household good that are commonly used.  In this way, we were able to appreciate the features of a typical kitchen, carpet weaving and, perhaps the real highlight, a marriage bedroom.

As sunset approached, we crossed the dry river to a cemetery (quite a nice one) from which we enjoyed some beautiful sunset views, before returning to our guesthouse at about 8:15 pm.  Tonight’s last dinner in Ghardaïa was quite special, not so much because it started so late (about 9:15 pm), but because it was followed at 10:20 pm by an hour and a half performance by musicians who showcased the area’s distinctive local music.  Accompanied by a traditional box guitar and large metal castanets, a band of seven (occasionally eight) men sitting under the desert date palms around a bowl of aromatic smoking camphor wood in the balmy evening heat, sang a range of hypnotic songs.  From time to time, one of the men would bounce to his feet and start some dancing that could only be described as rhythmic but fairly inactive, that seemed mainly designed to spread the smoke of the camphor wood with their swirling white robes.  We sat watching the show, sipping tiny glasses of syrupy sweet mint tea and cracking peanuts.  It was a long and late night, but a very memorable one, and when we finally got to bed at half past midnight, the clanging beats of the castanets were still pulsating in our heads.  They will be hard to shake for many months, I think.

Day 14 - Ghardaïa, Algeria

Sunday

26 June 2011

Today’s Bonus Images