M'Hamid El Ghizlane, also known as Lamhamid Ghozlane, (in

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...

: ⵜⴰⵔⴰⴳⴰⵍⵜ Taragalt, in Arabic: محاميد الغزلان for "plain of gazelles") is a small

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment Zagora Province Zagora () is a province in the Moroccan region of Drâa-Tafilalet. Its population in 2004 was 283,368. The major cities and towns are:Drâa-Tafilalet Drâa-Tafilalet () is one of the twelve regions of Morocco. It covers an area of 88,836 km2 and had a population of 1,635,008 as of the 2014 Moroccan census. The capital of the region is Errachidia. Geography Drâa-Tafilalet is situated i ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, with about 7500 inhabitants.

Location

M'Hamid lies at an altitude of about above sea level and about from the

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

at the edge of the

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

. M'Hamid can be reached at the end of National Route 9 from

Ouarzazate Ouarzazate (; , ), nicknamed ''the door of the desert'', is a city and capital of Ouarzazate Province in the region of Drâa-Tafilalet, south-central Morocco. Ouarzazate is a primary tourist destination in Morocco during the holidays, as well as ...

(260 km) via Zagora (approx. ). Mhamid lies on the Wadi

Draa :''Dra is also the abbreviation for the constellation Draco.'' The Draa (, ; also spelled Dra or Drâa, in older sources mostly Darha or Dara, ) is Morocco's longest river, at . It is formed by the confluence of the Dadès River and Imini Ri ...

, which rarely contains water.

History

Little is known about the early history of the place because of the lack of written records. The spacious palm oases, however, make an early settlement support (about 3000 BC) likely. Due to the growth of the desert, the settlement is threatened since the 2nd half of the 20th century by siltation, and the population is declining steadily. Until the end of the 1980s a special permit was required to enter the area because it is close to the strategically important border with Algeria. Even today, many soldiers stationed in the area of Mhamid.

Economics

The people of M'Hamid lived according to the principles of self-sufficiency for hundreds of years but due to reduced or even absent winter rains since the 1970s agriculture provided and less income and was abandoned almost entirely. In addition, a fungal disease (

Fusarium oxysporum ''Fusarium oxysporum'' (Schlecht as emended by Snyder and Hansen), an ascomycete fungus, comprises all the species, varieties and forms recognized by Wollenweber and Reinking within an infrageneric grouping called section Elegans. It is part of ...

) has significantly affected the

date palms ''Phoenix dactylifera'', commonly known as the date palm, is a flowering-plant species in the palm family Arecaceae, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit called dates. The species is widely cultivated across northern Africa, the Middle East, ...

which were already weakened by the drought. In addition, M'Hamid was always a center for traveling nomads and caravans. Today the town is the starting point for tourist

camel A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provid ...

and

4x4 A four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, is a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case provi ...

safaris into the desert. The weekly open-air market (

souk A bazaar or souk is a marketplace consisting of multiple small stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, Central Asia, North Africa and South Asia. They are traditionally located in vaulted or covered streets that have doors ...

) is held on Monday.

Townscape

The original adobe buildings of M'Hamid are mostly dilapidated and only a few mostly poor families live in those. In recent decades new houses have been built in M'Hamid in the typical construction of the Moroccan South on concrete floors with walls of hollow concrete blocks which are painted bright red. Desert winds carry always masses of sand in the city.

Festival Taragalte

Festival Taragalte, a three-day open-air cultural festival, is held annually in the dunes near M'Hamid El Ghizlane. Apart from music, the festival showcases many aspects of nomadic culture:

architectural heritage ''Architectural Heritage'' is an academic journal published by Edinburgh University Press on behalf of the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland in November each year. It was founded in 1991. The journal focuses on architectural history an ...

flora and fauna An organism is any living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have been pro ...

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

environmental protection Environmental protection, or environment protection, refers to the taking of measures to protecting the natural environment, prevent pollution and maintain ecological balance. Action may be taken by individuals, advocacy groups and governments. ...

, among others. It includes local, national, and international performers, and performances include poetry, story-telling, song, music, and dance. There is also competitive sport, including nomadic hockey and a

race, and conferences and

round table The Round Table (; ; ; ) is King Arthur's famed table (furniture), table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status, unlike co ...

s are held on a range of topics. Different themes are chosen each year. Its 11th edition, in October 2022, took place after a hiatus of two years owing to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Since 2013, it has been involved in the Caravane culturelle de la paix (Cultural Caravan for Peace), a travelling festival that was planned as a temporary successor to the Malian

Festival au Désert The (Festival in the Desert) was an annual concert in Mali, showcasing traditional Tuareg music as well as music from around the world between 2001 and 2012. It was founded and directed by Manny Ansar, and attracted thousands of visitors, brin ...

, after

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; ; Koyra Chiini: ; ) is an ancient city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. It is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali, having a population of 32,460 in the 2018 census. ...

became too unsafe to hold it there after January 2012. The 2022 Festival Taragalte included the 9th stage of the Cultural Caravan for Peace, The musical group

Génération Taragalte Génération Taragalte is a musical group from Morocco, formed in 2012, playing electric rock and blues. The group's five founding members all hail from M’hamid El Ghizlane (in Zagora Province), a village whose main industry is tourism. The id ...

, whose members are all from the town, named their band after the festival.

Surroundings

Hidden in the palm oases of M'Hamid are seven old, now almost uninhabited, and decaying

ksar Ksar or qṣar (), in plural ksour or qsour (), is a type of fortified village in North Africa, usually found in the regions predominantly or traditionally inhabited by Berbers (Amazigh). The equivalent Berber languages, Berber term used is ' ( ...

s. Approximately 50-60 km (about 30 to 40 miles) away lie the sand dunes of

Erg Chigaga Erg Chigaga or Erg Chegaga (; ) is the largest of the major ergs (dune seas) in Morocco. It is located in the Draa valley in the southeastern part of the country. The other well-known erg in the country is Erg Chebbi near Merzouga. This erg ...

, sometimes more than high, which are less often visited by tourists than those in

Merzouga Merzouga (, ) is a village in southeastern Morocco. The village is near the Erg Chebbi dunes, one of the tallest in the Sahara. It is about southeast of Rissani, about from Erfoud and about from the Algeria–Morocco border, Algerian border. S ...

References

External links

* * {{Coord, 29, 49, 20, N, 5, 43, 15, W, region:MA_type:city(7500)_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Populated places in Zagora Province