Clothes dry very fast here. Socks and pants that took 2 days to get mostly dry in Spain here dried in half a day in Fes, and in the drier, hotter Figuig, under half an hour. But still the heat was not as hot as we had braced for. The cold cliche of "but it's a dry heat" being better than a humid heat is true. But the best heat of all is in any place in the world is from the heart -- and that this town has too. We were treated very warmly by the community and shown around town between parts of the wedding.

A bird's eye view of the town of 15,000 made up of 7 neighbourhoods.	An aquaduct brings the water through the town.	The palm wood is used for doors, some as bare wood, some palm wood covered in metal.	The men (and honorary long haired man) all sit to eat and greet.
The views from our room at the Figuig Hotel. In Spring and rain the town blossoms.		In the old city the walkways are covered between the adobe walls to keep them cool. New buildings are less cooling-efficient block.	Majid and his elder brother show us old records.
			In the heat of the day there is typically a tea time followed by a siesta and chat to beat the 40+ degree heat.
Out in the garden being shown the date palms.	The 800 year old minaret has windows all along its height of spiral staircase.	This is the same mosque from the outside.

Figuig is an oasis on the border to Algeria, a region that feels autonomous from both Morocco and Algeria with a high percentage of Berber people.  The economy is flat with almost 3/4 of people from the town being ex-patriots now. In summer the town swells as vacationers from France and other counties come home and see their nuclear and extended family. 3 generations came home for the summer. Economic forces now mean migration  is the rule of the day. But here in summer again, a family home often still means the extended family with 3 generations or more under a roof. Parts of the town are centuries old and some fresh but with the action of windy sand and common materials spanning time, even a wall a year old looks as old as one twenty or a hundred years old.

2002, Pearl and Brian Pirie       | Trip Main Page |