TAZA
 

227
 

Taza :  General View.
 

Timetable. — A few hours are sufficient to visit Taza, the few points of
interest being grouped together in the old town and its immediate vicinity.
Application must be made at the Services Municipaux to obtain the necessary
authorisations. If on a short visit, it will be sufficient to view the Bestiun
(p. 231), tho Medina, through which we proceed from end to end (p. 229),
and the fortifications near the Tour Sarrasine (p. 231).

The excursion to Bab Mersuka and the Tuahar Pass, first by tram, and
then on foot, will take half a day (enquire at station as to hours of trains;
2 services daily).

TAZA, the headquarters of a military command comprising
260,000 inhab., has a population of 350 Euiy)peans and 5,000 nativgs
of mixed stock, Berbers of Meknassa and Ghiata, men of Fez and
Tlemcen. The Jews, whose Mellah was destroyed in 1903, have
mostly emigrated.

The buildings of Taza stand in three tiers on the foothills of
the lofty Ghiata range, that shuts off the western horizon. Begin¬
ning at the top, we have the stern looking Medina, with its pointed
minarets, perched at an alt. of 585 m. on a plateau bounded on
the N. and W. by precipitous cliffs, 85 m. high. Below, the Dra
El Luz ridge carries the Camp Militaire Girardot, established in
1914, and the New Town, while lower still, at an alt, of 445 m., lies
the station of the military railway, enclosed in a bastioned and