Imilchil: Morocco's Quiet Village of Two Blue Lakes

There is a moment on the road to Imilchil when the landscape stops being pretty and becomes something else entirely. The cultivated valleys fall away, the last argan and olive country is long behind you, and the world opens into bare rose-and-grey plateaus at over 2,000 metres, with flocks moving slowly across them and almost no traffic at all.

Then, quite suddenly, a sheet of deep blue water appears where you did not expect water to be. This is Tislit — "the bride" — and a short drive further, hidden in its own bowl of stone, lies Isli, "the groom." Local tradition says the two lakes are the tears of lovers from rival tribes who were forbidden to marry.

Imilchil is a small Amazigh (Berber) village in Midelt Province, in the Drâa-Tafilalet region, home to the Ayt Hdiddu people. It is not on the tour-bus circuit, and it never will be: the roads are too long and too winding. That is precisely why it is worth the detour. Few places in Morocco give you so much silence, so much sky, and so warm a welcome.

A little history

Imilchil sits in the valley of the Asif Mellulen, the "white river," at roughly 2,100 metres in the eastern High Atlas. Its people, the Ayt Hdiddu, belong to the Ait Yafelman confederation and speak Central Atlas Tamazight; many families still move with their flocks to high summer pastures, a rhythm that has shaped this plateau for centuries.

The story everyone will tell you here is the one about the lakes. Tislit, a young woman of one tribe, and Isli, a shepherd of a rival one, fell in love and were refused permission to marry. They wept until their tears became two lakes — and, shamed by the loss, the families are said to have set aside one day each year on which young people of the local tribes could choose their own partners.

Whether or not you take the legend literally, the tradition it explains is real and still alive. The annual gathering, known locally as the Agdoud n'Oulmghenni and linked to the shrine of the saint Sidi Ahmed Oulmghenni, combines a pilgrimage, an enormous country market and a collective betrothal ceremony. The rest of the year, the high pastures around Tislit are managed as an agdal, a communal grazing land opened and closed by village agreement — one of the oldest conservation systems in the Atlas.

A Berber wedding ceremony held under a canvas tent at the Imilchil open-air market.

What to see

Imilchil's pleasures are few, large and unhurried. You can see the essentials in a day and a half without ever rushing.

Lake Tislit

The nearer of the two lakes lies a few kilometres from the village, reached on a paved road, at about 2,100 metres. It covers roughly a square kilometre, ringed by bare red hills that change colour through the day. There is a small auberge at the water's edge and a level track along part of the shore, so you can walk as little or as much as you like. Late afternoon, when the wind drops and the hills double themselves in the water, is the hour to be there.

Lake Isli

Isli lies roughly ten kilometres further on, slightly higher and considerably lonelier, set deep in a rocky hollow. The final stretch is rougher than the road to Tislit and is best done in a sturdy vehicle or with a local driver. Scientists once wondered whether these two basins were meteorite craters; later study concluded they were not — but standing at Isli, you understand why the question was asked.

The village and its weekly souk

Imilchil itself is a handful of low streets, a mosque, some shops and a big open market ground. On souk day, shepherds, nomads and traders come down from the pastures with livestock, wool, carpets, tools and vegetables, and the village fills with conversation in Tamazight. Ask your guesthouse which day it falls on before you plan around it. Nearby you will also see old collective granaries and ksour of packed earth, and the Ayt Hdiddu women's striped woollen capes and silver jewellery.

Haut Atlas Oriental National Park

The lakes sit within the Haut Atlas Oriental National Park, some 49,000 hectares of mountain and steppe rising to just over 3,100 metres, and the pair was listed as a Ramsar wetland of international importance in 2005. Barbary sheep, Barbary macaques and Cuvier's gazelle live in the park, and the lake shores draw birds. You are unlikely to see much wildlife from the roadside, but you will see astonishing emptiness.

One of the two lakes at Imilchil, in the eastern High Atlas.

The betrothal festival

The moussem, widely called the Imilchil Marriage Festival, is normally held in September and lasts about three days. Dates are set locally and shift from year to year, so confirm them with a guesthouse or a Moroccan agency before you build a trip around them — and book a bed early, because the village has only a handful of small auberges.

Expect a huge temporary market, tents, livestock trading, drumming, ahidous line-dancing and, at the centre of it, families presenting couples who have agreed to marry. Do not expect a staged show for visitors: this is a working country fair, dusty and crowded, with limited shade and long periods of standing.

If that sounds tiring, the good news is that you lose very little by coming outside festival time. The lakes, the plateau and the hospitality are constants; in June or early September you will have them almost to yourself.

Women dancing with musicians during a traditional Berber wedding ceremony at Imilchil.

A day trip nearby

The most rewarding excursion is simply the southern road toward Agoudal and the Todra Gorges. From Imilchil it climbs across high passes before dropping, over roughly three to four hours, into the narrow limestone walls of Todra above Tinghir. Done slowly, with stops, it is one of the great drives in Morocco and can be split over two days with a night in Agoudal, one of the highest inhabited villages in the country.

The northern alternative runs toward Rich and the upper Ziz valley, where the river has cut deep gorges through red rock on its way to the palm groves of the south. Either way, hire a local driver if you are not a confident mountain driver: these are single-lane roads with steep drops, rough patches and very few barriers.

Honest advice for comfortable travel

• Altitude is the main thing to plan for. The village and Tislit sit around 2,100 metres and Isli a little higher. Most people feel nothing worse than mild breathlessness on slopes, but arrive slowly, drink plenty of water, take the first afternoon gently, and talk to your doctor first if you have a heart or lung condition.
• Distances are long and roads are winding. Nearly every approach involves three to four hours of mountain driving. Break the journey — Midelt, Rich or Tinghir all make sensible overnight stops — and take a car with good suspension.
• Accommodation is simple. Imilchil has small family-run auberges rather than hotels: clean, warm and friendly, but expect basic bathrooms, occasional power cuts and few, if any, lifts. Ask for a ground-floor room when you book, and check heating is available.
• Choose your base for walking distance. A guesthouse in the village centre puts you within a few minutes of the souk and shops; one on the lakeshore puts you beside the water but far from everything else. Pick according to what you most want to reach on foot.
• Walking is easy but uneven. The lakeshore paths are broadly flat, yet stony and without handrails. Sturdy shoes and a walking pole are worth more here than any guidebook.
• Mountain weather, not desert weather. Summer days are warm and dry with strong sun at this altitude; nights are cool even in July, and winter brings hard frost and snow that can close roads. Pack a warm layer and a windproof jacket whatever the month.
• Come prepared. Cash in dirhams, any regular medication, and a downloaded offline map: banking and mobile coverage are limited, and pharmacies and medical care are hours away in Midelt or Tinghir.

What to eat

Mountain cooking here is honest and filling rather than refined. Meals in the auberges usually mean a slow-cooked tagine of lamb or chicken with potatoes, carrots and turnips, or couscous on souk day, always with bread.

Bread is the real speciality of the Ayt Hdiddu, who bake a remarkable variety of it — flat loaves cooked on hot stones, thick country rounds, and the semolina pancakes served at breakfast with honey, butter or olive oil. In colder months you may be offered tagoula, a warming barley porridge that has fed these pastures for generations.

Drink mint tea, which arrives constantly and sweetly; ask for it b'shwiya sukkar (with little sugar) if that suits you better. Vegetarians manage well with vegetable tagine and lentil or bean dishes, but tell your guesthouse in the morning, since shopping is not a last-minute affair up here. Stick to bottled or filtered water.

A bride and her mother sharing bread with onlookers during a Berber wedding ceremony at Imilchil.

Getting there

Our verdict

Imilchil is not a convenient place, and we would not send you there as your only stop in Morocco. It asks for a full day of mountain driving in each direction, and it rewards you with simple beds rather than comfortable ones.

But if you have a week or ten days, if you are reasonably steady on your feet, and if what you want from travel is space and authenticity rather than sights to tick off, slot it between Midelt and the Todra Gorges and give it two nights. You will remember the blue of Tislit under a bare hillside, the noise of the souk, and the tea that appears before you have finished asking for directions — long after the famous cities have blurred together.

“Two lakes, one legend, and a horizon wide enough to let the mind rest.”

Photo credits

• Tislit lake: Laffitte Jean-Claude, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Imilchil Wedding Festival - the ceremony under a Tent: Twentydays, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Tislit Lake: Falki youssef, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Imilchil Wedding Festival - dancers and Music Makers: Twentydays, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Imilchil Wedding Festival - Mother and Daughter on stage: Twentydays, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons