Oulad Driss, Sahara, Marocko
The historical clay village in the shadow of tourism…
History speaks for itself in our selected small medieval village ”Oulad Driss” – founded in the 17th century.
The village is situated in the middle of one of the very last palm oases before the great desert expanses of the Sahara and right on the old famous 52-day caravan route from Zagora to Timbuktu.
Despite several abandoned and collapsed houses, this fortified village (Ksar) is still inhabited. Centuries of accumulated knowledge, of ecological building in aesthetically pleasing forms, is still present in many of the private houses and on defensive towers, gates and walls.
Since 1979, the village has even had its own local museum and a small traditional guesthouse in one of the typical kasbah buildings. In addition, there is a weekly market every Sunday, a kindergarten and a nursery school for its population of around 1,000.
– Since 2000, the village has had electricity and water, and UNESCO and some of the world’s leading architects, anthropologists and builders have funded several partial restorations of the village’s communal walls and archways in recent years. In the middle of this village, Academia Arabesca disposes the ”Kasbah Sellman” – two traditional buildings with the usual light inlet down to the courtyard.
– In one of the annexes we have started the construction of a small garden café with two storytelling scenes: The Hideaway Café.
– Our terrace offers views of the surrounding kasbah buildings, the palm oasis, the nearby sand dunes and the contours of the distant mountains.
– At our terrace you can already sleep under the starry sky of the Sahara or just sit and enjoy the full moon’s glow over the roofs of the neighbouring houses, the swaying palms of the oasis in the surrounding hilly landscape or hide inside the protected windowless outer walls of the houses when the sandstorm strikes.
– In the neighbouring village of Bounou, next to the Draa River, we also have a half-hectare walled garden with date palms and tamarisk trees and, of course, a deep well with a pump for irrigation.
“Desert is a place without expectation.”