Ksar Tissergate

Ksar Tissergate is one of the better-preserved of the middle Drâa Valley ksour, situated about ten kilometres north of Zagora on the right bank of the Drâa. The settlement sits at the edge of an active palmeraie and retains a substantial portion of its perimeter wall, principal gate, internal lanes, and two of its corner towers.

The ksar is built almost entirely in pisé and adobe over a low stone foundation, with palm-wood roofing on the surviving roofed structures. The interior fabric includes a small synagogue from the period when the ksar housed a significant Jewish community, a mosque, a public oven, and a courtyard house adapted as the Musée des Arts et Traditions de la Vallée du Drâa — a community-run interpretation centre that documents the building tradition, the agricultural calendar, and the customary governance of the Drâa ksour.

Tissergate is widely cited in the conservation literature as an example of community-led, low-intensity stewardship of a southern Moroccan ksar. It does not have UNESCO status and has not been the subject of a major institutional restoration campaign; partial repairs have been carried out by the resident community, by CERKAS technical teams, and by the local museum association.