Broken cliffs appear amid the desert, forming small gorges and canyons, bathed in unimaginable heat. There is no hint that life forms could survive here for more than a day. Flints and yellow pebbles, sparkling mischievously in the sun, cover the seemingly infinite surface on both sides of the road.
Then comes the surprise, one of the greatest the Sahara has to offer. With no warning, the land drops away. Below, in a valley framed by karstic-caverned cliffs, lie five picturesque towns surrounded by palm forests and flowering gardens: Ghardaïa, Melika, Beni Isguene, Bou Nouara, and el-Ateuf.
This is an area known as the M'zab, the land of the Mozabites. These cities are not like other desert cities, and the people who inhabit them cannot be compared with any other people. The white, yellow, brown, and blue cubic houses along the Oued Mzab river spread into pyramidal hills, on the peaks of which the minarets reign like obelisks. The cities of the M'zab attract and repel simultaneously--attract by their delightful symmetry and repel by their fortresslike inapproachability. Outside of the cities are the oases, zones unto themselves, with villas and gardens surrounded by high walls and palm groves.
As exceptional as the land are the people, whose origins are lost in the fog of history. Already ancient by the time they appeared in the Sahara over a thousand years ago and established their desert cities, their customs and clothing styles have changed little in centuries. It is difficult to categorize these light-skinned, mostly short-statured people.
They live on perhaps the most inhospitable land in the world, yet many Mozabites live better than most human beings. Their villas often house immeasurable wealth. Shielded from the outside by high walls, the villas contain everything one needs to fulfill a "Thousand and One Nights" fantasy image: blindingly white dwellings, terraces paved with magnificent ceramic tiles, priceless carpets below Moorish arches, delicate fountains, and the most modern of swimming pools. What extravagance in a region from which each drop of water must be painstakingly extracted! And the aroma of the gardens! The owners do not settle for planting fruit trees. They also coax bewitchingly fragrant herbs and exotic blooms out of the few square meters of usable land.
Puritanism and luxury lie close together in M'zab, and do not conflict. Rather, they belong to the rich scale of vitality that has enabled this secretive people to survive unchanged for a millennium in the middle of the Sahara. Date palm groves of legendary lushness extend five miles upstream along the Oued Mzab, and are watered from six dams built across that river. About four thousand wells draw the water from the earth. Water distribution is effectively and scientifically carried out. The Mozabites are thus able to grow fruits, legumes, and cereals beneath the palms.
The M'zab pentapolis was established in the eleventh century by the Mozabites. El-Ateuf is the oldest settlement. Ghardaïa is the main settlement, with about 70,000 inhabitants, including a Jewish quarter. Melika is populated predominantly by descendents of sub-Saharan blacks but has large Mozabite cemeteries. Beni Isguene is considered a sacred town--non-Mozabites are not welcome in certain sections; strangers can never stay overnight. Bou Nouara is the poorest of the five
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