Tamnougalt

Tamnougalt is one of the principal kasbah-and-ksar complexes of the Drâa Valley, located on the right bank of the Oued Drâa around six kilometres south of Agdz, in the Mezguita region. The settlement combines a ksar fabric with a major kasbah seat, the Kasbah des Caïds, which served as the administrative centre of the Mezguita tribal confederation from the sixteenth century until the early twentieth.

The Kasbah des Caïds is among a small number of southern Moroccan kasbahs that combine pre-Alaouite dating with continuous family stewardship. Original eighteenth-century painted ceilings survive in several rooms, and the sixteenth-century hammam remains intact. The structure has been documented through peer-reviewed photogrammetry and HBIM by Czech Technical University Prague — work that is unusual within southern Moroccan heritage, where most kasbahs lack any academic-grade architectural documentation.

The wider Tamnougalt settlement includes both Muslim and Jewish quarters, reflecting the historical role of the Mezguita as a stop on the trans-Saharan trade. The Jewish quarter, like many in the southern oases, was largely depopulated in the mid-twentieth century with the emigration of Moroccan Jewry to Israel.

Conservation activity at Tamnougalt has been led principally by Marsad Drâa, a regional preservation initiative that runs pisé-restoration workshops on site. The Tamnougalt Association for Heritage Preservation, founded by members of the local stewardship family, organises additional documentation and educational activity.

The settlement remains partly inhabited. Several of the kasbah quarters operate as small guesthouses; others are in partial ruin.