Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
( 0535 57 81 26;
www.manarmarble.com
;
Rte de Jorf; 8am-6pm)
Watch fossilised marble be-
ing cut into prehistoric sinks at this showroom selling some portable items, including pre-
historic bookends and trilobite earrings.
Information
Banks, internet cafes, the post office and a small supermarket are all located along Ave
Moulay Ismail.
Getting There & Away
BUS
CTM
( 0535 57 68 86; Ave Mohammed V)
runs overnight bus services to Meknès (Dh125,
7½ hours) and Fez (Dh140, 8½ hours) via Er-Rachidia (Dh30, 1¼ hours), and an early-
morning service to Rissani (Dh15, 20 minutes).
Supratours and other buses leave from Pl des FAR to Tinerhir (Dh90, 3½ hours, twice
daily), Ouarzazate (Dh125, 6½ hours, three daily), Marrakesh (Dh165, 11 hours), Meknès
(Dh130, eight hours) and Fez (Dh130, nine hours, three daily).
TAXI
Grands taxis and taxi minivans depart Pl des FAR and opposite the post office for
Merzouga (Dh30, one hour), Rissani (Dh8, 20 minutes), Er-Rachidia (Dh25, one hour)
and Tinerhir (Dh60, five hours).
TOP OF CHAPTER
Rissani
POP 20,500
Rissani is where the Oued Ziz quietly ebbs away, but between the 14th and 18th centuries
it was the location of the famed desert capitol, Sijilmassa, where fortunes in gold and
slaves were traded via caravans crossing the
sahel
. Rissani was so strategic that the Filali
(ancestors of the ruling Alawite dynasty) staged their epic battle here to supplant the Saa-
dians.
Today, Rissani is a dusty shadow of its former self. Barely a quarter of the population
lives in the 17th-century
ksar,
while the modern town constitutes a single street and one
