Climate of the Atlas Mountains
The Atlas Mountains are the meeting place of two different kinds of air masses—the humid and cold polar air masses that come from the north and the hot and dry tropical air masses that move up from the south. To the influences of altitude and latitude must be added that of aspect or exposure.
Rain is more plentiful in the Tell Atlas than in the Saharan Atlas, and more so to the northeast than to the southwest: the highest rainfall is recorded east of the Tell Atlas. ʿAyn ad-Darāhim in the Kroumirie mountains receives 60 inches (1,524 millimetres) a year; nowhere in the Anti-Atlas Mountains, south of the High Atlas, is the total more than 17 inches a year. In a single massif the slopes with a northern exposure receive more rainfall than those with a southern exposure.
With increased altitude the temperature drops rapidly; despite the proximity of the sea, the coastal massifs are cold regions. At 6,575 feet the summits of Mount Babor in the Little Kabylie region are covered with snow for four or five months, while the Moroccan High Atlas retains its snows until the height of summer. Winter in the Atlas is hard, imposing severe conditions upon the inhabitants.
Plant and animal life
Erosion of the soils in the Atlas region is aggravated by the sparseness of the vegetation covering the landscape; only about 39,000 square miles (101,000 square kilometres) of land are forested. On Er-Rif and the Kabylie and Kroumirie ranges, which experience some rainfall, moist forests of cork oaks cover an undergrowth of arbutus (cane apple) and heather shrub, and carpets of rockroses and lavender are found. When the total annual rainfall is less than about 30 inches and limestone is present, green oak and arborvitae (a species of pine tree) cover the soil, forming light, dry forests with a thin and bushy undergrowth. Stands of cedar predominate at higher altitudes. On the dry summits of the Saharan Atlas the vegetation is reduced to scattered stands of green oak and juniper trees.
The clearance of land for agriculture has reduced the forest cover in the Atlas ranges; animal life in the mountains is also in retreat. There remain only a few jackals, some tribes of monkeys (Barbary apes) at higher elevations, and occasional herds of wild boars in the oak woods.
The people
The mountains, with their inhospitable environment, have provided a refuge for the original inhabitants, who fled successive invasions. Here the Berber people have survived, preserving their own languages, traditions, and beliefs, while at the same time accepting Islam to some extent. Village communities still live according to a code of customary law, known as kanun, which deals with all questions of property and persons. The family unit traces its descent from a single ancestor, preserving its cohesion by the sense of solidarity that unites its members; an injury to the honour of one affects the group as a whole and demands vengeance.
The concern of Berber society to preserve its individuality is evident in the choice of habitat. Villages, which are fortified, are generally perched high up on mountain crests. Small in size, such villages are composed of the dwellings, a mosque, a threshing floor, and a place for the assembly of the elders (jamāʿah, or djemaa), which governs the affairs of each community. Families live, each unit apart, in separate rooms that form a square around a closed interior courtyard.
Despite the fundamental homogeneity of Berber society, there is a considerable diversity in different mountain localities. The Ishelhiyen (Shluh) of the High Atlas in Morocco inhabit the river valleys that cut down deeply into the massif. Their villages, with populations of several hundred inhabitants in each, are often located at an altitude of more than 6,500 feet. They consist of terraced houses, crowded one against the other, that are often dominated by a communal fortified threshing floor or else are grouped around the threshing floor-plus-dwelling of the most powerful family. The mountain slopes in the vicinity are divided up for pasturage and cultivation. In some fields dry (i.e., nonirrigated) farming is practiced for growing cereals. Land that is irrigated by diverting water from wadis yields two crops a year—cereals in winter and vegetables in summer. The Ishelhiyen use manure from their cattle as fertilizer. Oxen and goats penned together on the ground floor of dwellings graze on stubble and on fallow lands around the villages. Sheepherders follow a pattern of transhumance (seasonal migration), grazing their sheep on low-lying land in winter and on the uplands in summer.
During the period of the French protectorate in Morocco (1912–56), profound changes occurred, transforming the way of life of the Middle Atlas populations. The dominant pattern of transhumance gave way to the practice of sedentary agriculture. The winter descent to the plains (azarhar) pasture has become practically a thing of the past, since the land is now under cultivation. The ascent to high pastures in summer, however, still continues. Stock raising in one location is increasingly practiced. Commercial forest products, mainly cork, also bring in an appreciable income.
Where the mountain and the plain meet, the dir lands offer rich potentialities, thanks to a light soil and abundant water. Grouped together in large villages, the diara populations (i.e., populations who live on the slope of the dirs) constitute prosperous agricultural communities.
The Rif of Morocco and the Kabyle of Algeria resemble each other in many ways. Both Berber tribes, they inhabit the same types of wet mountain slopes covered with oak forests, are similarly attached to a barren soil, and are both inclined to isolationism. In contrast to the way of life of the Berbers of the High and Middle Atlas, stock raising plays only a secondary role in their village life; they are not so much agriculturalists as arboriculturists, although they grow a little sorgo (a sorghum used for fodder), and women grow vegetables in small gardens adjoining their houses. It is, however, the fig and olive trees covering the mountain slopes they inhabit that constitute their principal resources. The Kabyle are also skilled craftsmen, working with wood, silver, and wool. In the past they were also peddlers, selling carpets and jewelry to the people of the plains.
The Aurès Mountains, standing alone in northeastern Algeria, are perhaps the least-developed mountain region in the Maghrib. The Shawia (Chaouïa) populations who inhabit them follow a seminomadic style of life, which is partly agricultural and partly pastoral. They live in terraced stone villages in which the houses are built in tiers, one above the other, the whole being dominated by a guelaa, or fortified granary. When winter comes, the inhabitants of the high valleys lead their flocks to the lowlands surrounding the massif, where they pitch tents or live in caves. Returning to the uplands in summer, they irrigate the land to grow sorghum and vegetables and maintain apricot and apple orchards, while shepherds take the sheep to pastures on the hilltops.
Despite precarious living conditions, the Atlas Mountains are densely populated—overpopulated even, in certain localities. In the area around Tizi Ouzou in the Great Kabylie, for example, densities reach about 700 persons per square mile (270 per square kilometre). Emigration is a necessity: the mountain regions have become a human reservoir upon which the Maghribian countries draw to obtain the labour force needed for development. Commercial agriculture attracts large numbers of farmworkers to the plains either on a seasonal or a permanent basis. The Mitidja Plain of Algeria, for example, has been settled by the Kabyle. In Morocco the Ishelhiyen of the High Atlas have provided labour for the phosphate mines.
Urban growth has served to increase the volume of the migratory stream that flows down from the mountains; the cities of Algiers, Constantine, Oran, and Casablanca are to a great extent peopled by mountain folk. The shantytowns of Algiers contain numerous Kabyle and those of Casablanca many Ishelhiyen. Many of these urban immigrants find employment as labourers, while others become shopkeepers.
In Algeria the insecurity that became general in most mountain districts during the nationalist uprising that preceded independence led to the departure of large numbers of people. The exodus from the mountains continued after independence, with many mountain dwellers moving into the plains to occupy houses abandoned by departing Europeans. Rural and urban activities, however, still did not provide employment for all, for many emigrants, mostly from Algeria, sought work in France. To a considerable extent the mountain populations subsist on money sent back by these migratory workers.