Thursday, October 8th.
We left the Belvedere Hotel by 9:30. We are in a different world from the coastal area. The M'Zab Valley, home to the conservative Ibadite Muslim community, preserves social traditions and architectural forms virtually unchanged since the 11th century. Here, five fortified towns — Ghardaia, Melika, Beni Isguen, Bou Noura, and El-Atteuf — represent one of humanity's most successful experiments in sustainable desert living. The Ibadites, who separated from mainstream Islam nine centuries ago, created these settlements as earthly reflections of spiritual ideals. Every aspect of daily life follows ancient codes: women wear traditional white haik coverings that leave only one eye exposed, while men sport elaborately pleated saroual loubia trousers. These aren't tourist performances — they're living traditions in communities that have maintained their identity despite centuries of outside pressure. We visited two of the town. The narrow streets are designed to channel cooling breezes past whitewashed walls which reflect the heat of the sun. The traditional palm groves, irrigated by ancient foggara (underground channels), transform the valley into an oasis of green abundance — a reminder that human ingenuity has sustained life here in one of Earth's harshest environments for a millennium. We had a nice young local guide named Kassim who guided us around the towns. Each town is built on a hill with a mosque on the summit. We visited the mosque on the top of the town of Bou Noura where we had a very interesting cultural experience. While we were visiting there was a procession of four cars that entered tooting their horns. Inside were about 15 men dressed in white scarves and body coverings. We were told by our guide that they represented two different wedding groups and they were there for pictures at the mosque. We were told not to photograph anyone in these towns as it was strictly forbidden but many of us couldn’t resist and far from getting reprimanded the men wanted their pictures taken with us! From there we went to the town market where we had an hour to wander around soaking up the atmosphere and taking photos. I walked around observing and exploring the narrow lanes and came across a butcher shop with a ram’s head hanging above. I took a photo and the butcher was upset because he thought I had taken a photo of the woman standing in front of the shop; I told him no, I was after a shot of the head. He laughed and took it down from the ceiling and gave it to me to hold (it was surprisingly heavy) and he used my phone to take a photo of me! I laughed too and I took a photo of him and the head when he hung it back up. I continued exploring and came across a set of faceless mannequins and cheekily took a photo of that because we weren’t allowed to photograph faces and posted it to our WhatsApp group. The group had lunch at a local tourist restaurant but I gave it a pass and wandered the street people watching. Next we went to a UNESCO heritage site where a famous local Iman used to teach and lead prayers for the locals. Although is was an historical site for the faithful there was really nothing to see except a small white washed structure. We had an hour break back at the hotel to escape the heat before continuing the day’s itinerary. When we resumed we headed out to Kassim’s hometown, called Beni Isguen, which is even stricter about photography of people. The women here wear long white robes that cover everything and only look out at the world through a small opening for one eye allowing them to see where they are going. They look like ghosts wandering around. This is a cultural tradition not a religious one. We were advised not to photograph anyone, so we followed the guide through the town taking only photos of the narrow lanes when no one was in frame, to the summit for a climb up the watch tower and a lovely view of the environs of the oasis and surrounding towns. After our visit of that village we boarded the bus again and drove to the newest village which has been designed to be as green as possible using solar energy, water recycling and modern waste management. The builder, a very wealthy local man, built the village in the traditional walled city format protecting it from flooding and any imagined attacks. He sold new homes to newly married couples for an extremely reasonable price. Unfortunately we arrived at sunset and were not allowed to wander the streets. So, we aborted that exploration and went for our arranged dinner at a local traditional restaurant where we sat on low benches around a long rectangular table. Our meal consisted of dates, a wheat soup heavily seasoned with spices, a local flat bread, and couscous and camel meat with a type of seasoned stew of veggies poured on top. It was all delicious. We finished it with tea and peanuts encrusted with sesame seeds. We retuned to the hotel by 8:30. In the evening I tried unsuccessfully to update my blog. Google is giving me a hard time and won’t let me log in without a code which requires me to turn off my airplane mode and incur roaming charges.
