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The Skoura palm grove

Skoura – A palm grove with Kasbahs of yesteryear and today

The Skoura palm grove represents the oasian space in all its points of definition. It is a place of isolated vegetation in an arid environment and has over time gathered a population of diverse origins. In this place of life an economy based mainly on an integrated agriculture built in a well-known superposition of crops, namely date palms at height, then fruit trees and then in the lower layer, The most shady, with market gardening, forage and cereals. This agriculture is itself based on artificial irrigation of land and gardens. In fact, the palm grove of Skoura enjoys a true ecological and cultural authenticity. The green gardens and the wonderful casbahs that make up it are the product of the hard-working genius of the people who have succeeded one generation after another. Skoura is an island of greenery and life that reflects the history of the entire region of south-east Morocco.

A palm grove that lives to the rhythm of the seasons

At the foot of the Atlas Mountains, the palm grove of Skoura is a beautiful sight. Its gardens are full of date palms and other fruit trees such as olive, pomegranate, almond, apricot, fig ... These trees themselves protect the lower crops of wheat, barley, alfalfa, corn ... that grow up to the bank of the wadi..

The oral tradition tells that Skoura was a long time ago a large lake populated by various species of birds, the most important being the partridge, animal which is called in Amazigh Askour or Taskourt for its feminine. Different communities have migrated from the nearby mountains and the far reaches of the desert, especially from the Drâa and Tafilalet to settle on the shores of this lake. A legend tells that the majority community, coming from Drâa and called by some the valley of olives, would have brought with it the olive tree to plant in this territory watered until thirsty. These communities would have then drained the lake to grow palm, olive or pomegranate gardens ... Then the region was named Skoura by repeating the word Askour or partridge, as a term distorted over time.

Architecture of the palm grove.

Skoura’s palm grove appears today as the conservatory or national park of the oasis’s architecture. The Tighremt are scattered amongst date palm trees and we never get tired of observing one after the other. Some have very unusual figures. Some have joined into one long building, as some have renounced their towers but have thick bastions instead. Some of the unusual architecture is mostly due to refection of the buildings but most of the Skouri Tighremts are very well proportioned square castle like structures with four very light but sturdy towers. The decorative arches on the towers summit are not quite symmetrical according to Berber’s art. It would be very difficult to find any two similar tighremts in the palm grove; every one of them is quite unique.

Vast dimensioned Ksours are barely ever found in Skoura. The best known, most beautiful and most famous, Amridil, is built alongside of a Wadi, which just looks like a river of rocks in regular time but becomes a dangerous and no crossable river of high current water, usually once a year, within 3 days of consecutive rain. 6 days, is the maximum rainfall during the year.

Geography

The road of Kelaa des Mgouna in Skoura crosses the rugged steppe, which lies at the bottom of the High-Atlas. The little center of Skoura lies east of the palm grove, fifteen kilometers North of Dadès Wadi. Its two main sub-tributaries are Mgoun Wadi and Hajaj Wadi, also known as Amridil Wadi.. Mgoun Wadi always rolls water during dry season, the Hajaj Wadi, main water artery to the palm grove on the other hand is mostly always dry, as well as Tindir Wadi and their sub-tributaries. Dadès Wadi is always running but its summer flow is hardly sufficient for irrigation. The county to which it has given its name spreads on about two hundred and twenty kilometers. We can count more than a thousand douars, scattered mostly on the Southern side of the Atlas.

The high mountains of the Atlas are widely covered with snow in the winter. Snow, which constitutes a natural water reservoir that supplies all Wadis most part of the year. Located near Ouarzazate, the great damn of El Mansour Ed Dahbi, built in 1977, is withholding artificial water, for regulating the supply in water in the area and fight against desertification. The close proximity of the Sahara desert, the presence of natural borders such as the High Atlas as well as the Anti-Atlas explains the aridity with annual precipitation, ranging globally around 112mm in Ouarzazate and with almost absence of rainfall in the summer. Average minimal temperature varies between 1,9°C in January and 21,3°C in July. Average maximal temperature varies between 16,6°C in January and 37,8°C in July, when the temperature can easily exceed 45°C, despite it being located at 1200m of altitude.

Irrigation draws in Wadi Skoura and mostly still uses the traditional Khettaras in response to the drought of 1975-1980. This ingenious and very ecological system of Khettaras allowed capturing this precious element that is water, along the centuries, and in this way resisting further progression of desertification. This manner of collecting underground water goes back to the 3000 years of antic Persia and was supposedly imported to Morocco during the Arab conquest. Its purpose is to collect and direct rainwater, as well as deep waters for Oasis irrigation. Galleries are dug under water and leveled according to the land’s configuration, wells in regular spacing and open-air canals, SEGUIAS, which will spread the water throughout the palm’s grove labyrinth.

Skoura’s palm grove is mostly the largest part of it (about 40 kilometers). Stories are told that in the 13th century, water was way more abundant. Its decrease also diminished the cultivated surface. Thus, in 4000 hectares, 800 only could be irrigated in 1932. The palm grove feeds about 2000 Muslim homes and 100 Jewish ones. We can count 52’000 date palm trees that produce 3000 tons of dates during the best years, which are eaten locally. Barley is harvested in May, corn, sorghum and millet in September and they fill up ¾th of the irrigated land. The last quarter is dedicated to vegetables, such as broad bean, turnips, carrots, onions, fennel and cucurbit. Mostly anything will grow though.

Population

The Ahl Skoura, the Ahl Todgha as well as the Ahl Dades is a tribe of more cadastral rather than ethnic scattered in the numerous Ksour of the palm grove and in the oasis of this part of the Dades. Together they form a branch of the big Berber family of Masmouda, with a tint of Arab blood, which slightly altered their original culture and face’s. We also find people of Tafilalet, Sous, and Sagho, neighbors attracted by the palm grove’s wealth.

The tribe, ranked as tribe of Muslim right in 1936, was divided in four fractions. A Khalifa of Glaoui and a few Cheikhs administer it. Linguistically, they are the link between Beraber group of Tamazirt domain and the Chleuhs group of Tachelhaït domain. Between the two groups lies a transition zone.

Ksours of this tribe are grouped at the bottom, or at the mouth of the southern valleys of the High Atlas. Under the Almohades, they were part of the Haskoura confederation, which capital was Demnate. Steadfast, sober, battlers, the Imerghan would easily take part in road blocking and cattle theft. The Glaoua subjected them at the beginning of the 20th century and placed by 1932 under the control of Indigenous affairs. In the summer, families leave some guardians in the village and settle in the Azibs in the mountains, on their collective land. In the fall, herds graze in the surroundings area of the Ksours while the tribe begins to till. In the winter, sheep keepers come closer to the Dades Oued while some others reach the northern slopes of Sagho.

Today, the palm grove counts many Douars (villages) where inhabitants live from the most part from agriculture (dates, olives, almonds, feed, alfalfa, barley; as well as fruit trees such as apple, apricot, fig, grenade, and grape). Apiculture is widely spread, developed and encouraged.

Life from cultivation and rich biodiversity is therefore maintained.

Some craftsmen perpetuate ancestral traditions, such as pottery and basketry. Skoura beneficiates a new source of revenue from tourism. Many guesthouses and hostels have opened during the past years whether by foreigners or locals. By the end of the 20th century, typical Kasbahs have been remodeled into luxury hotels.

Skoura, in popular culture is known to have been the scene of various Moroccan and Foreigner films

Date palm trees

The date palm tree is the love child of this eco-system but it is very vulnerable. !

Symbol of prosperity, it can reach up to 30 meters but is more fragile than it looks.

At the time, no less than 15 million palm trees were there. Many different factors, such as dryness, silting, tree traffic and the Bayoud disease, made Morocco loose its 3rd world rank of date producer to the 7th today. Providing 4% of the world’s production with its 110’000 tons of fruit. Other big producers countries are Irak, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Sudan and Libya. The Southern Morocco area provides 90% of the national production. Meaning it is important to protect them. A national rescue plan of restoration, renewal of the palm grove and plantation of 3 million trees by the year 2020, has been established.

Its culture plays an essential role in the eco system and needs to be protected.Together with Prof Abdelaziz Yaacoubi, we are working on finding a remedy for the Bayoud disease; especially found on the Bffagous, the most prestigious kind and experiments have been very satisfying so far. Results were seen in vitro with chemistry but no results have been seen in vivo aside than from essential oils but homeopathy leaves no trace, is cheaper.

The Yellow Bee of the Sahara (Apis mellifera sahariensis)

The Saharan Bee is one of the three races populating Morocco’s apiary; she lives in Southern Morocco, most peculiarly in the Tafilalet. This territory stands in average at 700 meters of altitude in the Southern high-Atlas, bordering Algeria and the Sahara. The pre-Saharan climate is very rude. The difference of temperature between day and night is quite drastic. The air is very dry. In the winter, there is frost and in the summer, temperatures have no problem rising up to 48°C in the shade. Desert storm put all activities on hold when they frequently occur. Frequent periodical locust invasions have humans use drastic measures, which are so efficient in killing that it also decimates all other useful insects, including bees.

The primary resources for bees in this region are primarily the date palm tree and a variety of fruit trees. Corn and Barley feeding the population; alfalfa and leguminous are feeding quite an impressive load of cattle. Along side the roads are planted Eucalyptus trees and Tamarix. In the desert area grows broom, saxifrage, thorny trees, clover that are flowering at different periods of time and insuring an important bee production of excellent quality.

This is the surrounding of the Saharan Bee. She is of a yellowish red color and is parent with her congener from Cyprus or Minor Asia, where she probably was imported from, 2000 years ago, further to Jewish migration. The important «barrier» that forms the high Atlas separates the Sahara from the rest of Morocco, therefore isolating Tafilalet and preventing the local bee to mix with the Northern bee. Thanks to this, the Saharan bee has kept its own characteristics while adapting and multiplying in the oasis.

The yellow bee very much milder than the Tellian bee and perfectly adapted to harsh weather conditions, is today threatened of extinction because of the anti locust treatment and the voluntary introduction of the Tellian black bee.

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