Things To Do in Western High Atlas

The High Atlas Tourist Code

As Marrakech continues to witness an increase in tourist arrivals, more travelers are venturing out of the city and into the Western High Atlas to absorb its stunning natural beauty, quiet rural life, and opportunities for trekking and other outdoor adventure sports. This increase in human traffic is placing unprecedented pressure on the very people and landscape that attract the visitor in the first place. Waste, both human and artificial and deposited by locals and visitors alike, is becoming increasingly visible. Added to this are numerous social development issues, such as access to health and education facilities, and sustainable, year-round employment opportunities -- all of this in an area where electricity and telecommunications were unheard of a decade ago. An impending multimillion-dollar golf and ski resort in Oukaïmeden will also create its fair share of environmental and social challenges.

On a positive note, the past decade has witnessed the successful implementation of some joint initiatives between the region's residents, local government, and various private businesses, including a 4WD ambulance service in the Aït Mizane Valley and Clean Up Toubkal days implemented by numerous foreign-based trekking companies. In 1998, Discover Ltd, a U.K.-Moroccan responsible-tourism operator, which also owns and operates the Kasbah du Toubkal near the village of Imlil, instigated the High Atlas Tourist Code, a code of conduct for all those traveling in the High Atlas, particularly the Western High Atlas. The code was jointly developed and endorsed by various regional players, including the villagers themselves, and highlights an activity's potential to impact, positively and negatively, the region. Signs in Arabic, English, and French have been erected at strategic points around the popular Jebel Toubkal area, stating the code and asking visitors to respect the mountains and keep them waste free. The code also requests visitors to consider the cultural implications of their actions -- such as refraining from drinking alcohol and eating pork (in alignment with Islamic principles) -- while the trekking code follows guidelines set by most national parks and reserves around the world, including removing litter, not making open fires, and not removing plants or other wildlife. Importantly, the code also asks that visitors encourage their local guide to adhere to this same conduct.

Travelers should examine where, when, and how they can utilize services, purchase products, and contribute to projects that directly benefit the locals (or ask your tour company to what extent they follow this guideline), and when possible, always take your trash with you.

Fortress of an Empire

The founding father of the Almohad empire was Ibn Toumert, and it was from Tin Mal (sometimes spelled Tinmel) that his extremely orthodox and reformist Islamic movement took seed, eventually to reign over the entire Maghreb and Andalusian Spain. Born around 1080 in the Atlas mountains, a young Ibn Toumert left on a quest of spiritual learning and exploration that delivered him first to the Moorish capital of Cordoba and then farther on to the great Islamic centers of learning in the East, where he became an accomplished theologian. During this time, Ibn Toumert formed a defined set of principles for what he believed Islam stood for and how its followers should live.

In 1117, he arrived back in his homeland with a small group of followers and found much to disapprove of in Almoravid-ruled Morocco. Like all good Atlas Berbers of the time, Ibn Toumert held a traditional contempt for the desert-originating Almoravids, and he began preaching about the impure nature, as he saw it, of a ruling dynasty that indulged in blasphemous pleasures such as wine and one that allowed women prominent roles in society. He and his followers traveled to Marrakech and lambasted the Almoravid court for their ungodly ways. The emir at the time, Ali Ben Youssef, was a particularly pious man, and tolerated Ibn Toumert's ranting. He even organized a theological debate between his court's most learned elders and Ibn Toumert. Ibn Toumert held his own, and the debate failed to disprove his theories. Ben Youssef's aides advised him to execute the fanatical upstart, but it was only after Ibn Toumert knocked the emir's sister from her horse because she wasn't wearing a veil (as was her desert tradition) that he banished Ibn Toumert and his followers, known as the Almohads. The Almohads headed for the remote mountains above Marrakech, and finally settled in Tin Mal, building a simple mosque and settlement from where they proceeded to convert the scattered Atlas Berber communities to the strict doctrine of simple living and acquiescence to one God, as practiced and preached by Ibn Toumert, or Mehdi (the chosen one), as he was known.

To subdue and convert the tribal villages must have been quite an achievement considering their fiercely self-reliant, independent nature. It is widely accepted that much of the conversion took place with barbaric force -- "convert or die," so to speak -- and the Mehdi, aided by his trusted deputy, the Algerian Abd el-Mumin, was known to enforce his strict, puritan teachings in a very disciplined manner, regularly handing out punishment in public to those whose faith was deemed to be floundering.

Ibn Toumert died in 1130, and it was Abd el-Mumin who really expanded the Almohad's control in the neighboring mountain ranges, eventually establishing a disciplined military force that swept down onto the fertile plains to conquer the Almoravids first in Fes and then, in 1147, Marrakech -- barely 25 years after their banishment from the city.

The mosque of Tin Mal that is visible today formed part of a larger, more fortified town (the settlement served as state treasury during the empire's early years) that was constructed over the original in 1154. Although the mosque is roofless today, its classical Almohad design -- subsequently used in the construction of the Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakech -- can still be appreciated. Central to this design is the T-shape interior with a central aisle leading to the mihrab, or prayer niche, decorated in the characteristically Almohadic palmettos, rosettes, and scallops. Strangely, however, the minaret was placed over the mihrab, ultimately restricting how high it could be built. This design fault is apparent today, as the minaret and its sweeping vista of the Nfis valley is off-limits due to severe structural damage.

Although the Almohad seat of power eventually moved to Marrakech, Tin Mal remained their spiritual home. The Mehdi's tomb took on the aura of a holy shrine, and the man himself was elevated to saint status, something which he surely wouldn't have liked given his life's directive of worshiping one God.

The mosque was restored in the 1990s after a donation by one of the country's largest private corporations. The original mihrab, minaret, and the majority of internal arches remain intact.

The mosque is still used for midday Friday prayers, but visitors are free to enter any other day (aside from the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, this is the only other mosque in Morocco where non-Muslims are allowed to enter). The mosque's gardien, French-speaking Mohammed Fillali (tel. 0662/725612), lives directly below and is usually on hand to escort you around at any time of the day. Admission is free, but a 20dh tip to Mohammed is appreciated.