Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Back when caravans arrived loaded with gold, five Berber and Saharan tribes crossed
paths at this hitching post (Tinejdad means 'nomad' in Tamazight), quenching their thirsts
at the Sources de Lalla Mimouna natural springs, sleeping peacefully in well-fortified
ksour
in the Ferkla oasis and conducting business at 1000-year-old Ksar Asir, a medieval
commercial centre that housed an Almoravid mosque and a sizeable Jewish community.
Water, shelter, business and
baraka
: what more could a nomad need?
Sights
Tinejdad's crossroads culture remains remarkably intact just off the N10. The
Lalla
Mimouna springs
are signposted on the left (north) 3km before town, and the green line of
the
Ferkla oasis
begins on the southwest edge of town, where you'll spot towering
Ksar
Asir
.
To see what treasures you can find from desert traders, hit the Sunday and Wednesday
souqs
on the west side of town.
Musée de Oasis
(
www.elkhorbat.com/en.museum.htm
;
GPS coordinates N 31°29.693, W 005°05.206; admission Dh20;
9am-7pm)
Inside restored
Ksar el-Khorbat
is this award-winning museum that traces tribal
migrations through 22 rooms of carefully curated artefacts of seminomadic life: saddles
worn shiny; contracts inscribed on wooden tablets in Arabic and Hebrew; Tinejdad jars
for water and preserved butter; heavy silver jewellery; and to protect it all from would-be
thieves, inlaid muskets and handcuffs.
Interesting multilingual explanations in French, English and Spanish illuminate tribal
and family affiliations and explain the vexing architectural differences between a
ksour
and a
kasbah
. Useful indeed when you wander around the labyrinthine alley of the
ksar
in
which the museum is housed and which is still home to some 80 families.
MUSEUM
Musée Sources Lalla Mimoun
( 0535 78 67 98; admission Dh50; 8am-6pm; )
This rambling private museum encom-
passes the fizzing, magnesium-rich springs of Lalla Mimouna and is the passion project of
Tinejdad native Zaïd Abbou. Artefacts collected over 30 years - including agricultural im-
plements, textiles, pottery, construction tools, calligraphy tablets and painted prayer books
- offer an insight into desert life and are housed in an unfolding series of spaces that en-
compass an internal garden dotted with words of wisdom from
The Little Prince
.
MUSEUM
