Decorated towers
Four earthen towers.
Angela Stefanoni — CC BY 3.0 · Maureen — CC BY 2.0 · Vincent van Zeijst — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Mikel Santamaria from Getxo, Basque Country — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Mikel Santamaria from Getxo, Basque Country — CC BY-SA 2.0 · R Prazeres — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Just Booked A Trip — CC BY 2.0 · R Prazeres — CC BY-SA 4.0
One of the most striking earthen kasbahs in Morocco, in the Skoura oasis on the edge of the palm groves, once pictured on the old fifty-dirham note. It began in the seventeenth century as a fortified village in a strategic spot on the river at the entrance to the oasis. In the late nineteenth century Madani El Glaoui, elder brother of Thami El Glaoui, chose the scholar M'hamed Nasiri, from a local family, to teach his sons the Qur'an, and had his craftsmen build him a fortified house inside the ksar, which is now its most prominent building, with four decorated towers. The kasbah still belongs to the Nasiri family, and parts have become a small museum of traditional life, where you walk through rooms, courtyards and stairways, see the old olive press, the kitchen, farm tools and ceilings of palm wood and reeds, and climb to the roof for a view over the palms. Entry is by a small fee set by the owning family. The Skoura oasis around it, with palms, olives and other kasbahs, makes a calm stop on the road between Ouarzazate and the Dadès valley.
Four earthen towers.
Old press and kitchen.
Palms and olives.
Skoura oasis, about forty kilometres east of Ouarzazate
For its beautiful earthen architecture and towers, and because it appeared on the old fifty-dirham note, becoming a symbol of southern Moroccan kasbahs.