desert bloom; In the oases and foothills beyond Marrakech, a handful of Berber kasbahs have been converted into the latest luxury adventure.(hotels)(Hotel Review)

Byline: Richard Alleman

Kasbahs, the towering mud-walled fortresses that stud the desert landscape of Southern Morocco and were once home to Berber chieftains, have begun to be turned into some of Morocco's most exotic and luxurious countryside hotels. Here is a look at five of the newest.

Across the Atlas Mountains, about a five-hour drive from Marrakech, the oasis of Skoura is Morocco's kasbah-hotel capital. The spectacular Dar Ahlam, which recently opened in a restored nineteenth-century kasbah, is the creation of Parisian events organizer Thierry Teyssier. Guests can dine wherever they wish-in a tiny lantern-lit salon, in a secluded corner on a silk-curtained terrace, in a tent in the palm grove, or, on hot days, in the olive orchard, their feet dangling in the irrigation canals, or by the jade-green swimming pool. "Everything is possible here," Teyssier says, "massages in our Zen garden, cooking classes, camel treks, horseback rides, four-wheel-drive outings through the Dades Gorge." The spacious suites or villas are a mix of Moroccan style with Italian lighting fixtures, Indian fabrics, and bathrooms with mammoth sculpted tubs. (Rates start at U760, double, including everything-even spa treatments and nannies; contact Chic Retreats at 011-44-207-978-7164; london@chicretreats.com; www.darahlam.com.)

Far more rustic is the eighteenth-century Kasbah Ait Ben Moro, the creation of Spanish banker turned hotelier Juan de Dios Romero and a local Berber family that still owns the property. Nestled in the outskirts of Skoura, the property boasts sixteen monastic but charming guest rooms that evoke another time with their austere adobe walls, rough beams, stone floors, and tiny windows. Rates are very reasonable: from U57, double, including breakfast and a hearty Berber dinner-usually a choice of chicken, lamb, or vegetable tajine. (Phone/fax: 011-212-44-85-21-16; hotelbenmoro@yahoo.fr.)

In Marrakech, the elegant Ksar Char-Bagh is ...