High Atlas Rugs: Azilal, Glaoua and the Rugs of the South

Azilal rugs take their name from the province of Azilal in the central High Atlas. They usually have a pale ground and a free scatter of coloured diamonds, zigzags, checkerboards and signs. Some are covered in colour from edge to edge.

They are the most playful Moroccan rugs, and each looks like the work of one imagination. Lighter than Middle Atlas rugs, they are easy to place, and their busy surfaces hide the marks of family life.

South-east of Marrakech, around Telouet, the Glaoua tradition produces rugs that combine three techniques: bands of knotted pile, bands of flat weave and bands of wrapped, embroidery-like pattern. The surface has a relief you can feel.

Further south, around the Siroua massif and the town of Taznakht, weaving is especially fine, in pile and in flat weave, with a liking for saffron yellow, black and red. The names Glaoua, Taznakht and Aït Ouaouzguite overlap in the trade.

These are rugs of character. An Azilal brings colour and movement to a white or neutral room and suits children's rooms, studies and family living rooms. Keep the furniture near it plain, and let the rug be the picture.

The lighter build of High Atlas rugs is practical: they move easily, lie well under furniture and can be hung. On a hard floor they need a non-slip pad. Like all wool rugs, they are vacuumed with suction only and turned twice a year.

Of the High Atlas types, we hold Azilal rugs: 120 of them. Seventy-four are multicoloured and twenty-four have an ivory or cream ground. Fifty-six measure around 6 ft 7 in by 9 ft 10 in, twenty-two are mid-sized, twenty-two are small and twenty are runners. We do not stock Glaoua or Taznakht pieces.

The rugs shown on this page come from our whole collection of 275 hand-knotted wool rugs. Each rug is one of a kind, with its exact measurements on its own page. Delivery is free worldwide, duties and taxes included.