Telouet, which occupies a strategically lofty position in the remote and windswept High Atlas, 20km to the east of the Marrakech - Ouarzazate road, is today a crumbling, but magnificent, relic of Morocco's past. The kasbah (a vast fortified castle) was built over four centuries (from the 17th to 20th) but gained particular notoriety as the residence of the ex-Governor of Marrakech during the French Protectorate in the first half of the 20th century. The governor, Thami El Glaoui, collaborated with the French during this period, at the bloody expense of many of his people, and when Morocco was granted its independence in 1956, he was left disgraced and dispossessed and died shortly after. Telouet today is a shadow of its former self but the kasbah preserves a great deal of character and many of its interior features are relatively intact, despite its crumbling shell. Telouet can be visited by paying the custodian a few dirhams and you can visit the most recent part of the building - site of the most eleborate of the kasbah's decorative treasures. The photograph opposite is taken from the Glaoui's dining room from which guests could watch 'fantasia' displays (shows of supreme horsemanship) which were performed on a paddock area below. The interior of the governor's personal quarters was lavishly decorated, and much of the fine craftsmanship remains visible to this day. Hundreds of the finest craftsman toiled for years to produce the sublime stuucowork and carved cedar ceilings, beautiful wall tiles were manufactued in Fez and marble for the floors was imported from Italy. The kasbah makes an interested side-trip, for a couple hours with lunch at one of the restaurants in the village, en route between Marrakech and Ouarzazate. For those with 4x4 transport and some off-road experience, the dirt road from Telouet to Ait Benhaddou is one of the most spectacular in the country. This route, which descends the Ounila Valley is lined with traditional adobe villages and its stark canyonland scenery is tempered by a bright band of cultivation in the valley floor where the Ounila River flows. It's also a classic one-day mountain biking route, and the curtain-raiser to many of our biking tours into the south of the country. If you are planning to drive (or be driven) be warned that this is an extremely rough and uncomfortable route and one that should not be attempted in anything but dry conditions. On arrival at the southern end of the valley there is good quality accommodation available in both Tamdaght and close to the kasbah of Ait Benhaddou itself.
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