Juniper

A High Atlas mountain timber (principally Juniperus thurifera and Juniperus phoenicea), historically the preferred long-span beam for High Atlas tighremts and the granaries of the Anti-Atlas. Juniper produces straight, durable, rot-resistant heartwood that outperforms palm and tamarisk for primary roof beams and gallery floor joists, and the carved juniper ceilings of older High Atlas kasbahs (notably in the upper Dadès and Ounila valleys) are among the most technically refined elements of the surviving corpus. The trade in High Atlas juniper supplied lowland kasbah construction for centuries; the wild stands are now severely reduced.