The Tafilalet oasis, which gives its name to the whole valley and the province of Errachidia, is the largest palm grove in the world. Some 800,000 palm trees produce a variety of dates. It is the last large oasis before the desert and the endless sand dunes of the Sahara. Historically, Tafilalet is the name given to the palm grove around Rissani, and the name is usually extended to the valleys of the rivers Ziz and Rheris. Tafilalet, “the sea of palm trees” is roughly triangular, 12 km across the base, and 20 km long. It is crossed by the Ziz, and westwards bordered by the Rheris, two rivers that flow only rarely.

Their confluence marks a wide alluvial plain planted with acacia trees.

In 1996, the remains of a newly discovered carnivorous dinosaur, Carcharodontosaurus saharicus, were found here. Bigger than Tyrannosaurus Rex, it was up to 15 metres long, and weighed eight tons. Another previously unkown carnivore, Deltadromeus agilis, was also discovered. Smaller, it was up to nine metres long, and weighed four tons.

The region, once rich, thanks to irrigation and caravans, was the victim of drought and floods. In past times, there was Sijilmassa, the capital, in the middle of a prosperous palm grove with 200,000 inhabitants. The busy grove was the meeting-place of traders and caravan drivers from the Atlantic coast, Sudan, Niger and the Mediterranean, a place where slaves from sub-Saharan Africa were traded. But Sijilmassa disappeared, replaced by Rissani. Gradually diminished by tribal quarrels, the area grew calm after its pacification in the 1930s.

A great tradition of the region is a literary form, the Malhoun, a refined poetic and musical genre born here before conquering the rest of Morocco and the Maghreb. The Malhoun (you could translate it as “the well sung”), was probably born from the Madhi (a religious song form) in the 16th century. It seems to have been for a long time a declamatory song form, purely words and rhythm, which only gradually developed melody.

“Malhoun is born in the Tafilalet, was brought up in Marrakech and died in Fez.” In Marrakech, Malhoun acquired the irreverence that became one of its characteristics. Its African rhythms it gained in the zawyias (Islamic schools) and brotherhoods. The “death” of the Malhoun, in Fez, does not mean its end, but its fulfilment. It was in Fez that the Malhoun reached its maturity and acquired the refinement of Andalusian music. From there, it conquered Algeria and Tunisia….