Ifrane — All about Ifrane

The Tizguit caves (16th-17th century)

The first permanent village was founded in the 16th century by a sharif, Sidi Abdeslam, in the Tizguit valley, 9 km downstream from today's town. Its homes were first caves dug into the limestone cliff, hence the name Ifrane, "caves" in Amazigh. Residents only began building above ground some fifty years ago; the caves are still used as stables and storage.

In the mid-17th century Sidi Abdeslam's zawiya received a large land grant from the Alaouite sultan Moulay Rashid, from upstream of Ifrane down to the El Hajeb escarpment.

Herders and resistance (19th century-1922)

In the late 19th century Amazigh herding tribes, the Beni Mguild and Ait Seghrouchen, came from the upper Moulouya to graze their flocks on the plateau. Farmed land on the valley floor was private property; pastures belonged collectively to the tribe.

The tribes of the Ifrane-Azrou area resisted the French conquest from 1913 to 1917; higher in the mountains, at Timahdite and Jbel Fazzaz, resistance went on until 1922.

The 1929 hill station

The modern town was created in 1929 by the French administration on fifty hectares of land taken from the zawiya. It was a "hill station" for settler families from Fes, Meknes and the Saiss plain escaping the summer heat: a garden city of Basque, Jura or Savoy-style chalets, planted with lilacs, plane trees, chestnuts and limes brought from Europe.

A royal palace was built for Sultan Mohammed V. During the Second World War the town's prison served as a POW camp. Across a ravine grew Timdiqin, the quarter where Moroccans working for the holidaymakers lived.

Moroccan Ifrane

After independence the French houses were gradually bought by Moroccans; the town grew, gained a mosque, a market and housing, and Timdiqin was rebuilt. In 1979 Ifrane became a provincial capital.

In 1995 Al Akhawayn University opened, an English-language public university on the American model, which revived the town. Ifrane became a summer and winter resort much loved by Moroccans, with the snow of Michlifen and the cedars of the national park.

Snow and cool air

In winter Moroccans come from all over the country to see the snow; in summer Ifrane stays cool while Fez swelters.

Students and mountain people

Ifrane mixes two worlds: students at Al Akhawayn University, from all over Morocco and abroad, and the Beni Mguild Amazigh mountain tribes, sheep herders.

Ifrane's languages

Middle Atlas Tamazight is spoken in the villages; on campus you mostly hear English, the university's teaching language.