Visiting An Authentic Berber Kasbah in the Heart of Dadès Valley

AZDEAN: Welcome to the Destination Morocco Podcast, the show that takes you away to the beautiful country of Morocco. I am your host, Azdean Elmoustaquim. In each episode, we explore Moroccan culture, history, attractions, and activities, real and practical information coming from experienced travelers and native Moroccans like myself. 
 

And now let's go exploring. 

Hello everyone. This is Azdean. Thank you for joining me this summer as I come home and travel through Morocco. I'm coming to you today live from Marakesh, and it's been a wonderful trip so far. I've seen my family and old friends returned to my home village and reconnected with my culture and roots, my family, my team, and I just spent 11 days traveling around the south of Morocco from Marrakech to Merzouga Desert with plenty of stops along the way. 

We've met riad owners, tour guides, locals and fellow travelers. I'm sharing with you in today's episode my conversation with Mehdi, the owner of Labrinth Kasbah in Dadès Valley, a beautiful and highly rated family riad nested in the side of the valley, overlooking the Dadès River. Mehdi tells us about coming back to his village to turn his family home into a riad back in 2017. Medi describes the beautiful area and some of the hiking and cultural highlights of Dadès valley and the creative idea he had to make his riad stand out from others. We will have more conversations like this one coming up in future episodes where you will not just learn about the experience of traveling in Morocco, but you will hear the birds in the background, music playing, the sound of footsteps and people going about their daily routine. 

As we record ourselves live on site, on location in Morocco, and daily snapshots into our tour here, please visit and follow Destination Morocco on Instagram at Destination Morocco. What you'll see us visit riads, tourist attractions share with you Moroccan dishes and performances by musicians and. We wonder through the square of Jemaa el-Fna and capture the energy and vitality that comes alive as the sunset. 

You will hear interviews with native Moroccans, including the uncut version of today's episode. Simply search Destination Morocco on Instagram and make sure you follow us to get all the daily updates. Enjoy today's conversation and I will be back again soon with a lot more. Thank you and have a wonderful day. 

Welcome to another amazing episode of Destination Morocco podcast. In today's episode, we are stopping at Dadès Valley. With the owner of a riad, Mr. Mehdi. Would you please tell us the name of your riyad and what does it mean? 

MEHDI: First of all, thank you so much for being here. Oh, my pleasure. Absolutely. I would, uh, deeply express my gratitude. 
 

Thank you. We feel the same or shall we not in our, uh, kasbah today. So to start, I would like to put our guest in like a situation. So, as you mentioned, we are in the Dadès Valley, far away from Marrakech, like five and a half hours. Mm-hmm. Driving and from the desert, four and a half hours. Okay. There are many people coming from different places and different nationalities. 

AZDEAN: You haven't answer my question! 
 

No worries. What's the name of your kaba? 

MEHDI: Labyrinth Kasbah what does it mean? It means like a puzzle. A puzzle like, 
 

AZDEAN: yeah. Okay. We are spending two nights here. Yes. At the Kasbah, and the meaning also means a maze. Yes. And it is a maze because it's in and out and you keep going up upstairs, downstairs. Yeah. So it's really, really nice and beautiful. 
 

Can you tell us a little bit, first of all, about you? What's your story, Mr. Mehdi? 

MEHDI: My story. I was born here. In this home? In this place? In this place, yes. Oh, wow. I was, uh, born here after completing my studies. Mm-hmm. 
 

AZDEAN: Where did you complete 
 

MEHDI: your studies? In, uh, University. Agadir ? Yes. Okay, nice. So I studied tourism. 
 

After that, I decided to come back to my family home. Oh, I see. So I renovated to make something in this field of tourism. Okay. But this was a dream, like since I was a teenager. Mm-hmm. I worked as an unofficial guide, non-official 

AZDEAN: guide. Oh, one of the enemies. Yes. 
 

MEHDI: But actually, uh, I become official. So I come back and I invite this home. 
 

Okay. So since 2017. Okay. Yes. After one year and nine months. Of non-stop work, including 12 people working one way. We finished it and it becomes the labrinth of nowadays. 

AZDEAN: Oh wow. So basically your family lived here. Yes. So you kicked them out. Where did they 
 

MEHDI: go? No, no, actually we become like, uh, much bigger because like if you now Yeah, of course they course, yeah. 
 

They used to find the lady for their. Young, uh, son. Mm-hmm. So when we become a much bigger family. Yeah. So it doesn't fit the family anymore. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. So we leave this one and it was like empty for 40 years. Years. Oh wow. And this is why I come back. I say, why we will leave it like this? 

Yeah. So I have to come back to do something. Yeah. As I attached to the tourism since I was lucky. Boy. Definitely. So I come back, they are against the idea. Oh, I see. And it took for me seven years to convince them. Oh my goodness. Especially my dad. He used to tell me all the time. Now you don't know. It's a huge building. 

Yeah. You don't have enough, uh, resources. Oh, wow. To find money to renovate it. But I said inside, deep in, in my heart, I feel that I will succeed. Oh wow. So I thank today after one night that you experienced maybe I put the train on its place. Well, 

AZDEAN: you're very determined. You're very hospitable. That's an amazing story and I see it. 
 

Um, it's really, really nice. How many rooms do you have or how many suites for the guests if they wanna come and stay with you, what would you like to let them know, 

MEHDI: please? So for the rooms, I have six rooms. Six? Yes. We have a family room because, okay. I didn't change anything in this. So you just left it as it Yes. 
 

As it is. Wow. And I just added like, the things that my guest might need. Oh, I see. During their stay here. Okay. That's great. So as, as you see close to us here, you see the wall, the Artec. Yes. So if I wanna make the rooms much bigger mm-hmm. I have to destroy it. Yes. Yes. And if I did so, I will lose the history of this building. 

Yes. Okay. 

AZDEAN: So lemme just make sure the audience, the listeners, Understand what you're saying. Yeah. So the walls, right. Look at the thickness of the walls. Yeah. So if you wanna expand, then it's, it's just not the right thing to do. No. So you have to leave everything the way it is, like it is. Yeah. Okay. That's incredible. 
 

So do, do you have quadruple, do you have triple rooms or just have double in all your suites? 

MEHDI: Actually, I have like four doubles. Mm-hmm. And one triple and one cquadruple. 
 

AZDEAN: Oh, nice. Yeah. Nice. Okay. One thing that I really noticed. Yeah. When I came in, I did a little bit of a walk around and a few things really caught my attention. 
 

The number one is in the breakfast area when we had breakfast. Yeah. And we had dinner last night. There's been so many signatures of people that have visited the place. Yes. I mean, they fell in love with it. Yeah, I read the comments in many different languages. Some I can never read. Yeah. And they all mention Mehdi Mehdi Mehdi. 

So, um, that's just, that is incredible. Can you tell us a little bit of story behind the idea of having guests sign their names in the wall and what inspired you to do something like 

that? 

MEHDI: So since I was student, I worked in many different places. So when I come back to make my own, we are like almost 12 hotels. 
 

So I try to find something to be different. I see. As you know, in our Moroccan culture, we always say you, you want to be known. You have to be different. Absolutely. So this is the idea. I still remember when I worked in the different places. In Marrakech, in Ouarzazate or in the desert? All people. They do provide like a guest book. 

I see. To put their feedbacks. Oh, okay. So for me, I said, nowadays none of us has time to check, like books read. Yeah. So the I idea, it's to make it like clear on a wall. Visible. Yeah. Visible for all the guests. So if something occur, You will feel shy. Yes. You will do your best Absolutely. To provide the good services for the next guest. 

Absolutely. Oh, definitely. Yeah. And as I told you, if you're, you still remember when I told you my daddy was against the idea? Yes. He was with us. When I leave the wall empty and he keeps still me, this boy, little boy. You are crazy old people. They paint their walls. Why you later like this? Yeah. They say, listen, maybe you will not understand now. 

Yeah. But win the first case. inshallah,. You will understand why I leave it on the wall. I start in 2000, August, 2017. So it's not long ago. No, no. Yeah. I work one year. Yeah, one year and four months. And then the covid arise. Yes. Yeah. And then it breaks, like Yeah. The whole energy that I has. Yeah. And actually, I restart. 

Oh, that's really 

AZDEAN: nice. I mean it's, you put a lot of hard work into it, A lot of hard and Sure sweat. So, and I can see it. I mean, it's very visible. You're very hospitable. Your team is very hospitable. The the place I fell in love with the place and this is the reason why. Okay, so we are Berbers and we have our own culture. 
 

And a lot of people, they're in our culture, but they still don't see it. And the perfect example is this setting right here. Yeah, of course. This setting. I wanted to do the recording here because, It reminded me when I was a kid, when we were kids, we'd go play outside and all day. And when we come a table, small table like this, this is will have, you know, lasida which we have tasted a few days ago in my village or therewait or whatever. 

Yeah. Soup. Yeah. And uh, you know, just the conversations that we'll have as kids and the fights will have as kids and the space is so tiny. And the pillows and also this hidura, I forgot the name in English. And it just, it brought so many memories to me. Then, uh, when I look around, I see everything reminds me of a perfect Berber culture. 

Then when I look at the ceiling, the ceiling looks a little different Yeah. Than what we have in our village. Yeah. Normally it's all yellow. Yeah. Built a little bit different. But in this case, this one is, I see that it's dark. Yeah. It's a black one. Uh, what's the reasoning behind it? What's the story? 

Behind it. If you can explain it to the audience 

MEHDI: please. Actually, this one is like a normal roof, as you mentioned. Mm-hmm. It's yellow. Allow it before I came. When I reach the place, I find it as I told you, 34 years. Yes. Nobody lived in. Yes. So it'll take for me like years to renovate it. Yes. So I ask an old man, as you know, our culture. 
 

Of course. Of course. They are the source of the information. Yeah. So I asked him, listen, I have something. I want to protect it. He say, Why I told him I want to keep it as it is because actually you see it's like very old. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah. So he told me about a liquid that extracted from the roots of the, the trees. 

Yes. I don't know the name, the right name in English, but we can mention it. Of course, it's a raisins or something like that. Okay. We say, Yes, 

AZDEAN: this liquid, we use it in many different ways. But go ahead, please. Maybe. Yeah. 
 

MEHDI: This liquid that I put on this, uh, like roof, it's empty of insects.. I see. This wood will stay for years. 
 

Yeah. Oh wow. This is why it's black. 

AZDEAN: Yeah. Unbelievable. Really nice. Okay, the other thing you said, the name means. The maze. Yeah. 
 

MEHDI: And while I'm listening to your question, yes, I will pour you a cup of tea. Oh, thank you. Like a mint tea. Thank you, miss. Appreciate it. Thank you. You can put some mint tea if you want, 
 

AZDEAN: like this is perfect. 
 

Good. Mm. This reminds me when we used to go on the field with little kids. Yeah. With the little animals and, you know, shepherd and they make tea and just, it's just, it's very authentic and really, really tasty. Very, very nice. What else can you tell us, if not about you, about the region, but that valley? 

Let's say we have some people coming in, let's say for one day. Yes. What can they do? Or if they stay for two days? What are some of the things that they can do? 

MEHDI: We do provide like, uh, different activities different from summertime and wintertime. I see. Yeah. As you may know, wintertime, it's very cold. 
 

Mm-hmm. So most of people that come to this place, to the Dadès Valley, they always vocalize on tricking a day trip. Yeah. Mm. So, um, Talking about my village, we do provide like the downtown, just here. Mm-hmm. It's a very important place to visit it. There are many huge kasbahs, more than 600 years. Oh wow. Old. Oh wow. 

So when our guests come, we do have like a brochure that contains all information concerning the old village with a waterfall cloud by. I see. And the canyon. The canyon. The canyon. Yeah. Like a canyon is very large. Yeah. And people that used to visit it in winter, like just to shoot some pictures or something like that, or a picnic. 

Mm-hmm. But at this time of the year, it's our main swimming pool. Ah, it's such a natural one. Yes, yes. And all families, they go 

AZDEAN: absolutely, absolutely close by. So how far is. The canyon from here. 
 

MEHDI: It's only 20 minutes by minute. Yeah. I work couple the days. No, it's work station walking. Yeah. Okay. I mean, our guest, if they would like to go with their car, it's possible as well. 
 

AZDEAN: Oh, I see. So they have the option either the, their driver will take them. Yeah. What if they wanna walk? They can walk for 20 minutes. Of course. And just enjoy the scenery and, and the beauty of, uh, Dadès Valley.. Right. That's incredible. What else can they do? Can they spend some time with the nomads? Can they spend some time with, with the Berber family? 
 

What else can they do here? Course as 

MEHDI: activities, of course. Yes. When we host our guests, we do propose for them like activities. I see. And as you mentioned, we may have lunch with the family or spend the second night with the nomad in the atlas. In the atlas, in the caves. Caves? Yes. Oh, wow. And as a guide, as I told you, because you mentioned that I am the, the owner of the The Labyrinth Kasbah. 
 

Yes. But actually it's a family business. I just run it. Okay. Yeah. I mean, there is like a whole family 

AZDEAN: behind. So you work and they get paid? 
 

MEHDI: Yes, but my mind, but my mind job is, uh, like a guide here. 
 

Okay. 

AZDEAN: Okay. Perfect. So let me just ask you this. You said that you take tourists, visitors to the caves in the mountains. 
 

Can you walk me through that experience? Do they just pack their gear and they go, or you have somebody else to help with the gear and you know, their backpacks and stuff? How, how does it work really? And then when they get there, what do they do? 

MEHDI: Yes, of course. I mean, before we start, I want to mention that we work as a, a family as a team. 
 

We have like a, a young boy from the, the village, the countryside. They, they don't have any chance to follow their studies or I see. Or they, they, they don't have the like to study at all. So we used to involve them and to keep our activities as a sustainable development. Nice. We used to work with women from the village, with young boys. 

Yes. And uh, girls as well. Oh, definitely. So for the mountains. We call like a, a mule man. Oh, I see. To carry our stuff. So 

AZDEAN: it's it's a tracking experience first. Yes. And then when they get to the mountains, to the caves, and it's another experience as well. Yes. They 
 

MEHDI: try to live as nomads. Okay. 
 

AZDEAN: So they, they live that moment. 
 

A simple life as the nomads word. Yes. That's impressive. That's it. That's incredible. Thank you. Wow. Now, How far is Merzouga Desert from here? 

MEHDI: Merzouga it's around four and a half hours. Half. Including like the stops. The stops, yeah. Because before reaching the Merzouga there is like different activities to do on your 
 

AZDEAN: way. 
 

Of course. Yeah. The reason why I'm saying that because it's been hard. Yeah, of 

MEHDI: course. The heat. Yeah. I know most of people coming from abroad. Mm-hmm. They think that the desert is very hot. Yeah. Actually the vale at this time of the year is harder. For us as a local mm-hmm. We feel it's normal weather. 
 

Yeah, of course. Course, because it's on, on the, on the peak or the mountain, so it's cooler. But tomorrow inshallah,, inshallah as we say, in Morocco, you will experience the desert. Yes. Which is very hot at this time of the year. Definitely. But it's good as well. Especially for the one who is suffering like diseases or something like skin diseases. 

Yes. You might try a Hamman of sand. Yes. Sand, 

AZDEAN: which is you get buried in the sand except your head. Of course. Of course. Yeah. And you get to drink a little bit of sips of water. Yes. See, because the sun gets really, really hot, but yes. Yeah, 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Yeah. In Celsius. 50 
 

MEHDI: 60, like the Celsius. 
 

Okay. Yeah. 47, 48. Wow, that's, but is still good for the body. Yeah. Yes. 

AZDEAN: It's, it's a healing sense. Yeah. That's it. Absolutely. Absolutely. What else can you tell us about you, about the village, about activities and things that people can do here that we have not mentioned yet? 
 

MEHDI: Yes, south of Morocco Yes. Is not like big cities. 
 

I understand exactly what you're saying and you will see what I mean. By explaining that. Okay. The kind of food, yes. I'm talking about myself. We try mm-hmm. To involve like locals. Yes. They are experimented in the local food, of course. And this is what we do serve. I got you. The, the place itself, it's simple. 

Yes. And we keep it 

AZDEAN: clean. So basically what you're saying is Yeah. To the listeners, the place is, it's very authentic when it comes to the, the, the verbal culture when it comes to the local area. It's not a luxury place, but it's a very homey place. That's right. Um, if you wanna feel the Berber culture, this is definitely the place to be. 
 

It's not like Marrakech when you have, you know, all the bells and whistles, but here it's a very simple, it's very beautiful and the way that it's set up, I see that even the food is a little different than the city food, in my opinion. I, I'd rather stay here going through that's valet. Then stay in a, you know, four star or five star riad or hotel because I'm not gonna have that same experience because of the authenticity of the setup. 

We have everything set up from this sitting right here to the room next to it, to the other rooms, to the where the guests are staying. It's very authentic and very beautiful, and that's what I say to people. I mean, you can stay in Five Star Hotel, you, you'll get an amazing experience, but you're not gonna get. 

The true, real experience as well. That's really, really 

MEHDI: important. That's true. And uh, I will add one thing. I mean, our guests, if they wanna stay in a five star hotel. So why you make yourself tired? Fly in 17 hours from the States, for example, from Chicago to Paris, and then from Paris to here to stay in a five star hotel. 
 

Yeah. I'm sorry. I will not call that tourism, but if you had like, like five star hotel, you may stay home. That's it. Because you have everything close by people. Wait, they are traveling? They are traveling to discover the other traditions. Yes. The other cultures. Yes. And this is what we try to provide and preserve. 

Yes. If you see you made a little tour in our kasbah.. Yeah. There are things that you will not find anymore. 

AZDEAN: A hundred percent. That's the reason again, why I fell in love with the place, because it's very authentic. Yeah. That's it. When I walk in, this feels home. Right. This feels a, it feels Berber, it feels this is our culture at its best. 
 

It's, and it's well, well preserved. You have done an amazing 

MEHDI: job. I wanna ask you, okay. First of all, like, because maybe I'm allowed to ask you as well. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I know you as a person. You are a hard worker person. Thank you. Thank you. And, uh, I mean, congratulations for this. Thank you. You made a, an effort to come and meet people. 
 

Thank you. The second thing, could you tell me about your experience? Why do you studying here in Morocco? 

AZDEAN: Well, that's a really, very layered, many, many layers for that question. I don't like my culture. I love my culture, I love my country. But what we do is we are not just, I don't wanna show Morocco as everybody else shows it like a desert doing with the camel, right? 
 

There's so much more to Morocco than what everybody else shows, right? Um, we are Amazon, we are, this is, this is what are we doing every day, right? You, we are a network, right? The things that we know about ourselves, about our culture. And our hospitality. Our hospitality is different. Yeah. You know, the burgers are very different. 

Yeah. It stay 

MEHDI: in 
 

AZDEAN: our blood. Yeah. It is in our blood. And you know, I tell people, they say, Hey, you're a tour operator, you're an agency. So, There's a lot of crew behind me. They can, yeah, of course the audience cannot see it. But yeah, they're doing an amazing job and it's very, very hard 
 

MEHDI: work. This is what I like. 
 

Yeah. I mean the, yes. The way you are working as a team. Oh, a hundred percent. Starting from the driver. Oh, a hundred percent. The assistant. Like percent. 

AZDEAN: I love my country beyond words, and that's why we do this. It's not easy. It's not, if it's easy, anybody else would do it. Right. And what you can see, we are focusing on the experiences. 
 

We're not focusing on the money. Right. We wanna show the experiences to people. They, people can come in from all over the world and they can see Morocco with $10 a day with $10,000 a day. 

MEHDI: Right? Yeah. But the experiences yes. Are different. Of course. Yeah. 
 

AZDEAN: Of course. So that's why I choose the south first, because it, it, we have to show the south first. 
 

Yeah. It's very important. I mean, we did our theology. We did. Few hours of other villages, and it's been an amazing experience and it's just, uh, we're very grateful at the end of the day. This concludes our episode. If you don't have any more questions, 

MEHDI: thank you so much. You trick me. Yeah, no, it's not. It's just like I'm just playing with you. 
 

Yeah, I know. I mean, just as I told you, I'm happy to ask you and I, I, I heard and I know about your great question, experience. Thank you. So this is why I, I asked you like, yeah, I really appreciate it. So thank you once again. You're very welcome. It has been a pleasure. Thank you. Likewise. I hope that we are like, uh, I didn't mention that in the beginning, my English, like, I hope that our listeners will,

AZDEAN: Your English is just wonderful. 
 

MEHDI: Thank you so much. So it's like an English of a nomad man. Thank you. You did amazing. 
 

AZDEAN: So this concludes our episode for today, all the way from Dadès Valley with Mr. Mehdi. Thank you for your hospitality. It's a pleasure. Thank you for being generous with us and thank you for your time. My pleasure. We really, really, really, really appreciate you. 
 

Thank  you. 
 

AZDEAN: And we are looking forward to sending guests your way. Inshallah. Have a wonderful day.