5

Drâa Valley Kasbah Trail

Roads now allow safe, speedy passage through the final stretches of ancient caravan
routes from Mali to Marrakesh, but beyond the rocky gorges glimpsed through car windows
lies the Drâa Valley of desert-traders’ dreams. The palms and cool mud-brick castles of
Tamegroute, Zagora, Timidarte and Agdz must once have seemed like mirages after two
months in the Sahara. Fortifications that housed gold-laden caravans are now open to overnight
guests, who wake to fresh boufeggou dates, bread baked in rooftop ovens, and this realisation:
speed is overrated.