location

We are located in the south east of Morocco, at the gate of the Sahara desert. After a six hour long drive from Marrakech, crossing the green high Atlas mountains and the canyon mountains of Ait Saoun below Ouarzazate, you arrive into the Daraa valley. Then continue driving for another four hours and you enter into the Ktaoua valley, in the small town Tagounite, one of the last towns before the Sahara desert starts.

The Tagounite-Ktaoua Valley includes 55 villages and has counted a population of approximately 17.500 people in 2004 and roughly 9000 people in 2014. Many of those villages are now abandoned and some have turned into ruins.

history

The small village Bani Hayoune is one of the oldest Jewish villages in the Daraa Valley. It was discovered by Ishak Aquim around 2500 BC. Bani Hayoune is - like many old and more rural villages - still containing a very precious and ancient traditional amazigh lifestyle that has been preserved for centuries by it’s community. In the past, the village has been used a lot for crafting traditional products and for trading food and goods. It used to be a very important place where many nomads passed through to trade animals and products while on their way to Timbuktu, Mali.

In the past, people looked for a place to live by the water, so that they could support their families and animals through agriculture. For this reason, the villages in the Daraa Valley were all built along the Daraa River. This river has been the main source of life for thousands of people for years. Until a few decades ago the river dried up completely.

today

Currently 1350 people and 148 families live in the village Beni Hayoun. Its kasbah is 36.800 m2 big.

Nowadays a few of the people who live in this region are farmers, some of them own a shop or are construction workers. Several people own a small piece of land - inherited from their ancestors - trying to grow grass, wheat, herbs and salads. Many depend on the financial support of their children, as there is no pension or insurance provided by the government. A lot of the people living here have no work at all and try to survive from some produce of the land or from helping others on their land, for which in return they receive a few dirhams or can collect food for their animals.

Inside the old kasbah Beni Hayoun

Street in Beni Hayoun