Our first day in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the M’Zab Valley was split between the oasis and the Sahara. In the morning we walked through the palmerie (palm grove) of the town of Ghardaia, the largest of the five ksour (fortified villages) of the valley. The intricate system of wells and canals designed to apportion the scarcest of resources, water, among the date palm growers was fascinating. Perhaps even more intriguing was the downstream end of the oasis where water from the rare rainfalls (once every 3 to 5 years!) is channelled. There, the palm trees stand on eroded islands a couple of metres tall and at the very end there is a dam almost 3 metres tall. Apparently, when it rains, it really rains!
On a hill above the oasis stands one of the watchtowers that line the entire M’Zab Valley. While 5 of the watchtowers are the minaret of a hilltop mosque at the centre of each ksar, others are in a warning system on hills between the villages. The one that we visited also had some rock carvings of indeterminate age nearby.
Our final stop was a newly built “eco village” near Bani Isguen ksar, which truth be told was a bit of a disappointment. The large public garden was closed, apparently permanently, and the sustainability was somewhat questionable. Apparently. the only way to sustain the increasing population is continuing to drill more and deeper wells thereby depleting groundwater at a rapid rate. While traditional architecture is used and stone rather than concrete is used for building, all the new dwellings are fully air conditioned but with the cooling systems hidden from view to preserve the traditional look. Although our tour guide held a masters degree in solar energy studies, there are no solar panels in the eco village (nor anywhere else in Algeria) since electricity from fossil fuels is heavily subsidized so A/C is cheap. Gasoline is subsidized too, with a litre costing only about $0.25 USD throughout the country!
Having seen the oasis in the morning, we were off to the desert in the afternoon: 100countries.info/2025/05/05/camel-riding-in-the-sahara
