On to Berber Land

 "A kilometer square" is what I remember the tour guide saying of this ancient deserted Berber city, again, fed by springs that bring the desert to life.

Our tour guide.

A plaque and a light.  Electricity was brought in to illuminat the entrance to this national treasure, though it's a marvel how they got the wires through the thick mud walls.

 It's a city of streets and small centers.

An old market place, made to look as it might have in the 12th century.

Like the adobe houses in the Southwest, walls of mud and straw.

All the beams are of the trunks of palm trees.

Time and heavy rains damaged much of the site, which they're working to restore.

The curved walls meant people can walk freely around.  if  the corner is sharp, it meas it's the entrance to a private home, so visitors would not turn in there.

A glimplse into one of the rooms with handcrafts.

Avillage well inside the walls.

At one point we were guided to the souvenier shop.  I had been feeling that Toute needed to be more developed for the public.  I glanced in here and thought, uh, maybe not.  But interspersed with the toy cars were some lovely works by local people, and we wanted to support them.

 Down  this passageway and up some steps we came to what the tour guide called the White House.  It's a place of judgement where people bring their grievances to be settled by the elders.  When the session is over, people are meant to feel white, cleansed of whatever had been troubling them.

Tilt your head back, and this is the ceiling, decorates with  woven colored straw.  I prefer it to the painted celing in Napoean's palace.

The White House was lit by light from a lovely balcony.

Unfortunately marred by graffitti -- but we had to laugh at this one, proudly proclaiming Djelloul's home town.

The entrance to the mosque, a vast space still used by the city  outside the ancient walls.

Hello, sweet kitty.  Good-by.  

 At the end of the long day, everyone felt enriched.  The police had never known of this place before.  You had the sense they would come back with their families.  Back to Ain Sefir where we had a very special family waiting for us.