Khenifra

Khenifra stands beside the Oum er Rbia in the Middle Atlas country of the Zayan communities. Its kasbah and river bridge gave this crossing a place in the history of the Moroccan sultanate. The town's municipal history records that Moulay Ismail restored the kasbah in 1688. The fortified enclosure and bridge connected royal military ambitions with a landscape used by mountain communities and their herds.

The bridge was remembered locally for an unusual building tradition. Oral accounts tell of an egg levy collected from the inhabitants and of egg white used in its construction. This is a story about the monument, rather than an established account of its building materials. The municipal account links the crossing to improved commerce and seasonal livestock movements. Together the kasbah and bridge recall a Khenifra whose importance rested on a defensible river passage.