Identifier: tafiletnarrative00harr (find matches)
Title: Tafilet; the narrative of a journey of exploration in the Atlas mountains and the oases of the north-west Sahara
Year: 1895 (1890s)
Authors: Harris, Walter, 1866-1933
Subjects:
Publisher: London, W. Blackwood and sons
Contributing Library: Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston University

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-built huts, a dreary poverty-stricken-looking place. From this spot we had a choice ofroads to the summit of the Atlas—namely, either topursue the one we eventually followed, vid the AVadGhadat and Zarkten, or to turn to the south, andskirting the side of the steep mountains on our right,strike as straight a line across country as the natureof the land would allow. The latter, a mere track,often passing along the face of precipices and at allparts difficult, leads vid Gadaruz and Tizi Ait Imigerto Zarkten, where the two unite. However, we chosethe longer but more practicable, and even that wasbad enough. What the other must have been likeit is impossible even to guess ; but the fact that itis only pursued by the native mountaineers andsturdy mountain mules would probably have meantthat for us it would have been impassable. Ten miles after leaving the iizala in the valleyof the Wad Misfiwa, w^e descended by an execrablepath to the level of the Wad Ghadat, close to THE WAD GHADAT. 69
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Fordino the Wad Ghadat. 70 THE ASCENT OF THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS. where a ruined or incompleted bridge raises itsbroken arches from the stony river-bed. The fordwas bad enough, even though the river was nothigh, and it was only by piling the loads bit by biton to the top of the pack-saddle of the highest mulethat we succeeded in getting our baggage across atall, for the stream was strong and wdde and swift.No history or tradition seems to contain anyrecord of the bridge, which, if ever completed, musthave been a fine work with its five high arches; butit is easily apparent that it is of Moorish workman-ship, and was no doubt erected by one of the earlySultans of the present dynasty, probably in theseventeenth century, for previous to that period thecommunication between Morocco and Tafilet w^as al-most nil, the two countries forming as a rule separatekinodoms, thouoh now and then falling; under thejurisdiction of one Sultan, as in the case of threesuccessive rulers of the Beni Merin dynas

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