Visiting the Glaoui salt mine near Telouet
 

On our recent trip we hired KTM 790 and 890 bikes from Noureddine at BM Attitude in Marrakech.



On our return to Marrakech we chose not to stop at Ait Benhaddou which was submerged beneath a torrent of day trippers from Marrakech, and instead continued north on the same road to Anmiter, where a the road takes you west towards Telouet, home of Thami el Glaoui.

El Glaoui was one of the three 'Lords of the Atlas' controlling the major routes over the High Atlas mountains south of Marrakech. El Glaoui controlled the pass known as the Tizi n' Telouet which was the main direct route before the French constructed the Tizi n' Tichka in 1936. Sadly, the Telouet Kasbah (one of many owned by the family) was damaged in the 2023 earthquake and at the time of writing is still closed awaiting repair.

But as well as tributes from passing merchants, El Glaoui had many other sources of revenue, one of these being the salt mine near Telouet.



This video shows the approach from the east from the direction of Ait Benhaddou on a beautiful section of road. What comes out quite well on the GoPro video is the excellent condition of the re-engineered road from Anmiter towards Telouet, it's a real joy if you are on a motorbike. The video gives an impression of higher speed than reality. I tend to ride slowly in Morocco to enjoy the wonderful scenery and you can see from the speedo that I was actually only doing 40-50 kph (25-30 mph).Once on the track you might notice a lookout tower on the hilltop to the right, to protect the mine.



This second video shot on an iPhone shows the interior of the mine, which is still being worked. The location of the mine is marked on Google Maps as 'Ancient Salt Mine of Télouet'. I gave a 50 dh note to cover the two of us and some sample rocks to take home which the miners were well pleased with.

If you are interested in the background to the El Glaoui 'crime family', read Gavin Maxwell's excellent book.

Also https://blog.travel-exploration.com/...-pacha-glaoui/