Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the road is pockmarked and bumpy, it is possible to navigate all 36km to Aït Benhaddou
with a 2WD. The worst section of road is the 11km stretch between Telouet and Anmiter.
Sleeping & Eating
I Rocha
( 0667 73 70 02;
www.irocha.com
;
Douar Tisselday; d per person incl half board Dh460; )
This
cliffside stone guesthouse, on the N9 road from Marrakesh to Ouarzazate, lifts travel-worn
spirits above the green river valley. Ten sunny, cream-coloured rooms have easy-going
Berber charm, with wood-beamed ceilings, plush local carpets and
beldi
-tiled bathrooms.
Owners Ahmed and Katherine make terrific French-Moroccan dishes with herbs fresh
from the terrace garden.
MAISON D'HÔTE
€€
Dar Isselday
( 0666 17 48 81;
www.dar-isselday.com
;
Douar Tisselday; s/d Dh340/500)
Prepared with love, Na-
jat's traditional lunches are served on Dar Isselday's panoramic terrace beneath the shade
of a pink peppercorn tree. Inside, six comfortable rooms sport
tadelakt
bathrooms, and
brothers Kamal and Lahcen are on hand to lead interesting walks through the family orch-
ards and to nearby quartz mines. You'll find the house just down the hill from I Rocha on
the N9 Marrakesh-Ouarzazate road.
GUESTHOUSE
€€
TOP OF CHAPTER
Telouet
Telouet occupied a privileged position as the birthplace of French collaborator and auto-
crat Pasha Glaoui, until he was ousted in 1953 by the Moroccan independence movement.
Legend has it that when the imposing doors of Telouet's Glaoui kasbah were thrown open
at last, locals who had mysteriously disappeared from their villages years before stumbled
dazed onto Telouet streets, after years locked in the pasha's basement.
Telouet also once had a thriving Jewish community, entrusted by the Glaoui with man-
aging the all-important salt trade. Salt mines are still active in the area; prized pink salt
found along the nearby
Oued Mellah
(Salt River) was once accepted as currency.
Near the Glaoui Kasbah is what remains of an ancient
slave village
. But Morocco's gov-
ernment remains ambivalent about the Glaoui clan's home town, and with little outside in-
