Ksar Bou Taghat
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The Ksar
The most common traditional architectural model in the Todra Valley is the
Ksar, called Ighrem in Berber language. It’s a village surrounded by a wall with watchtowers, one or more monumental entrances and
some common facilities inside, between which is always a mosque.
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Kasbah of Ali Dani in Aït Zilal
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The Kasbah
The other classic model is the Kasbah, name that began to be used
under the French protectorate to translate the Berber word Tighremt, diminutive of Ighrem. Indeed, it is
a much smaller fortification: a single building to house a powerful family. Its plan is usually square
with four corner towers and sometimes an internal court.
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Shrine in Haloul
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The shrine
Outside the Ksar, usually in the cemetery, there is always one or
many shrines covering the graves of Sufi masters or other people considered holy by the community. These
mausoleums are supposed to protect the village and receive pious visits, especially by women. Its shape
can be very diverse, but they are all characterized by its central dome.
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Watchtower in Tadafalt
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The watchtower
On the high points close to the valley, many watchtowers allowed once notify the
presence of enemies at long range. Today they are almost all disappeared and the only seen, near Tadafalt, is in ruins.
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Construction of pisé
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The pisé
The usual construction system of all described architectural models is the pisé or
rammed soil, which consists in piling the damp earth -without straw- in a wooden formwork and to ram it down to give it consistency.
Once completed a bit of wall, formwork is removed immediately and sticks that supported it leave the pisé buildings characteristic
holes, but they can also be clogged with soil.
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Manufacturing of adobes
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The adobes
The other traditional construction system is the mud and straw bricks dried by the
sun, called adobes. With these bricks, bound together by the same mud and straw mixture, are constructed
the thin walls in the second or third floor, pillars, arches and decoration.
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Ksar Taghzoute
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Decoration
The arrangement of the adobes allows creating many geometric figures on the highest
points of the walls and towers, as well as entries of Ksour and Kasbahs. Walls are crowned with triangular battlements and windows,
very small, are surrounded by a frame of lime or plaster.
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Ceiling in Taghia n’Illamchane
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The ceilings
The ceilings of Todra valley are made with reeds on wooden beams of
palm tree, poplar or tamarisk. These reeds are sometimes substituted by oleander stems that can perform geometric designs. On the
reeds once was palm leaf mat or old tissue, but today people prefer plastic. The whole set is covered with a soil layer of almost
20 centimeters.
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Coating of a wall with mud and straw
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The coating
The walls and roofs are coated inside and outside with the same mixture of mud and
straw, which can withstand twenty years in the first case but should be renewed almost every year on the terraces. In the early 20th
century people began to use also plaster, but only in guest rooms of the houses and in the praying room of the mosques.
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Modern building in Tineghir
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Modern buildings
Today most of this traditional architecture has been replaced by a new style, made
of concrete and based on hybrid influences. It takes from Europe its outside form, from Moroccan cities its domestic distribution
of space and keeps the local tradition in the decorative shaped triangular niche over its large windows.
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Kasbah drowned by the concrete
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Architectural heritage conservation
The result of these changes is the abandonment of ancient Ksour and Kasbahs,
which are crumbling from lack of maintenance, and concrete construction inside the Ksour which have not been abandoned. In the
whole Todra valley, the only soil buildings that have been restored to this moment are the Kasbah of Sheikh Bassou, the Ikelane
Mosque in Afanour and some houses in the Ksar Tinghir.
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