While the centre of Tinerhir is made into a typical modern Moroccan town, the villages around the oases have retained traditions and old life styles. The odd satellite dish could destruct your feeling of travelling in time, but in most cases, the houses as well as the systems of irrigation and agriculture remain unchanged over the last century. Houses are made mainly from mud, and often by the owner himself. The only elements that cannot be made on the spot are the iron windows and doors, but they are often just transported from the town centre. The paleness of the houses are in a stark contrast to the freshness of the vegetation and the shifting colours of the surrounding mountains through the day. The agriculture is organized so that date palms grow on the edge, olives, pomegranates, almonds and fruits further in, together with grain and vegetables. The oases have traditionally been organized with independent families in each their ksours, a sort of low-scale fortress. Warfare and murder between families were far from uncommon before modern times.
