Sunday 28 October 2018

Nomad life in the caves of the High Atlas mountains

This is a nomad cave in the foothills of the high atlas mountains in Morocco .This place is located in the north west of the Dades valley .You can go to this place by taking an off-road from the Mohdash Kasbah . This off-road is about 14 Km. And just as you cross 2 to 3 Km , you will drive through some caves .Some of them are lived and the others are left .The nomad life is not a kind of life which is stable but they keep moving from time to time searching for food ,for themselves and there animals .When you visit one of this caves , and it is posiible because those familes are really kind and very welcoming , you will see someting like on the picture above .There are three caves and it is not always three caves .It maybe more or less .And right next the cave there is like a small area surrounded by stones and that is the place to keep goats and shep at night .And for the caves , there is one used for cooking , the other one for sleeping and storing there stuff and the other one for eating and for guests as well .The nomad life is not an istolated life but they have a kind of social life of there own .And it is not the family which live in the cave who made the cave because the cave is not owned by anyone ,any family can use it once it is empty . No door for the cave and they do not use anyting to close them and they are open to the air like in the picture above .


This is inside on of the caves .At the very inside , they store barley and wheat and once a week they grain them to make bread which is one of the most important meal to eat in every meal time .It looks a bit black inside the cave because they make fire inside in winter to hit up .And there is  a carpet on the floor to sit once you go in .

This are some of the animals they have .There is a dog is a great guard of the cave .They do not bite people who get close to the gave but they keep barking harder and harder the more you get closer to the cave .They do that so as to warm the family that there is an oustide coming .And once a member of the nomad family talks to them they shut up and eat and treat the visitor like a member of the family as you see on the picture .There dogs are really great in terms that they know everything the family owns , he loves the chikens and they share life together .And the chikens are kept for having eggs and a source of food for the nomad family , very simple life .
To have a donkey is very important animal for nomads everywhere .This great ,helpful animal helps the family more than anything else .They use to bring drinking water and washing water from the closest river to the cave , that can be 3 hours ride .They also use to bring food from a weekly market that can be 8 hours far and through the mountains to reach the market place . The nomad life is really very simple and intersting in that it makes you feel that you have everything in this life and maybe it is good to visit such places to see how lucky you are .
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