Berber mountain valley

Imlil, High Atlas Mountains

At the foot of Morocco's highest mountain, Jbel Toubkal (13,167'), a valley in the High Atlas mountains opens before us. This area is called Imlil (pronounced IM-leel) and it is about 55 miles south of Marrakech and just one mile high in elevation. Imlil is home to a small Berber tribe, the Ait Mizane, or "people of the Mizane," which is the name of the stream in the bottom of the valley. Imlil is a collection of several small villages composing about 2500 people in all.

The Ait Reraiya make a living by farming the mountain slopes and grazing sheep and goats in the highlands. Their major crops are barley, corn, and vegetables. They also cultivate walnut trees, and walnuts compose most of the vegetation you see here and are also the most valuable crop of the Ait Reraiya.

The Ait Reraiya farm these sharp slopes by building terraces along the mountainsides. Their water supplies are derived from the relatively high levels of precipitation that fall in the high mountains, most of which is in the form of snow. You can even see a little snow left here on the high peaks in the middle of summer.