4. Desert oasis and fortified town of Kasba
I imagined an oasis as a lush, green paradise that appears in a desolate, brown desert world.
The Draa River, which flows from the Great Atlas Mountains, a high peak in the Sahara, appears in the Moroccan desert.
When the river is plentiful, it flows 1,100 km into the Atlantic Ocean, but most of the time it disappears into the vast desert of the Sahara.
There were oases everywhere I went.
As I was driving through a vast, desolate landscape that looked the same in every direction, a green city suddenly appeared before my eyes.
The size of the city was proportional to the size of the oasis.
A row of lush palm trees lined the flowing water.
Fields spread out all around.
There were houses, too.
But it was a different world to what I had imagined, with flowers blooming in abundance and birds flying everywhere.
It was a place where people lived.
I thought of the oases in Lawrence of Arabia's time as oases.
There were rows of wells dug along the road.
Hundreds of them.
The wells were dug when people began to live in the villages, and there was one for each village.
After several decades, when one well dried up, another was dug along the same water vein.
In an era before heavy machinery, the wells were all dug by hand.
It was obvious that they were dug by hand, and I was impressed by humans' amazing ability to survive in any place.
There were kasbahs everywhere along the road.
What is a kasbah?
In Arabic, kasbah refers to the territory of a country or city, and can also refer to a fort or castle where the army is stationed. It can refer to a particularly fortified part, but as in Morocco, it can also refer to a small local fort, the residence of a local official, or an entire town with these.
The road that stretched from Errachidia through Tingheril to Ouarzazate was the "Kasbah Road".
In the past, camels were the main means of transportation.
Camels can only travel 20 kilometers a day.
For that reason, it seems that kasbahs that also served as lodgings were built every 20 kilometers.
Kasbahs were completely surrounded by forts.
Kasbahs had towers at each of the four corners, the lower one was used as a warehouse and the upper one as a watchtower.
They were generally two-story buildings, with the first floor used as a warehouse or for raising livestock, and the second floor as living space.
They were often built near rivers or on top of small hills, and the old kasbahs are now in ruins.
The outer walls were made of mud, so they were warm in winter and cool in summer.
There were sturdy gates that opened in the morning and closed at night, and there was a curfew, with entry and exit at night being strictly regulated.
They were used to protect the town and its residents from outlaws and thieves.
I knew the song "Women of the Kasbah," so I thought they were prostitutes' houses.
It was also a post town, so that may have been an influence.
Currently, kasbahs are used for various purposes.
Hotels, tourist sites, restaurants, government offices, etc.
Some of the abandoned buildings have recently been returned and people have started living there.
The kasbahs restored to their original form were luxurious and beautiful.
It seems to be following the same path as Japanese castles and castle ruins.