Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Tiznit medina is a sleepy place where it is fun to wander around spots such as the jew-
ellery souq and Rue Imzilne, a street of leather-sandal shops. The Berber traders here are
tough salesmen, but it is still worth trying to strike a bargain. Things liven up considerably
on Thursday, which is market day.
City Walls
It's possible to climb onto sections of the 5km-long city walls, which have some 30
towers and nine gates. On the northern side of the medina,
Bab Targua
overlooks a
palmeraie
with a natural spring, used as a laundry by local women.
HISTORIC SITE
Grande Mosquée
MOSQUE
The minaret of the Grande Mosquée (closed to non-Muslims) is studded with jutting
wooden sticks. Local legend suggests this is where the souls of the dead congregate. More
likely, these were left in place by the masons who built the minaret to help them climb up
and replaster. A similar arrangement is used on minarets across the Sahara in Mali and Ni-
ger.
Source Bleue
The original town spring is now a shallow, stagnant pool, green rather than blue. Legend
has it that a woman of ill repute, Lalla Zninia, stopped to rest here at what was then plain
desert. She spent the next three days repenting her wicked ways, and God was so im-
pressed that he showed forgiveness by having a spring gush beneath her feet. Her name
was thus given to the village that preceded Sultan Moulay al-Hassan's 19th-century fort-
ress town.
HISTORIC SITE
Sleeping
Hotels are gathered around the large roundabout to the southeast of Bab Oulad Jarrar, with
a few options in the medina.
Bab el Maader
( 0673 90 73 14;
www.bab-el-maader.com
; 132 Rue El Haj Ali; r Dh330; Sep-Jun)
This tradition-
al house in the medina is Tiznit's best address, a five-room guesthouse with a courtyard,
GUESTHOUSE
€
