Location and Hosts
Jnane Tamsna
Designer Meryanne Loum Martin and ethnobotanist
Gary Martin have created Jnane Tamsna, a coupound of three charming
houses comprising 17 bedrooms,
and a thriving garden, on a beautiful
six acre estate in the heart of the Palmeraie (a date palm
oasis outside of Marrakech).
Here, the exquisite Ottomon design of how
to live in the desert – how to balance an arid environment
with shady, aromatic humidity and style – is brought to
you on a silver platter with a refreshing cup of mint tea and
a smile.
The Jnane Tamsna was listed among the "80
Hot Hotels for 2003" by Conde Nast Traveller magazine.
Meryanne Loum Martin
Former Parisian lawyer Meryanne Loum-Martin is a self taught interior designer whose achievements in Marrakech have been celebrated in Architectural Digest, Harpers and Queen, The New York Times, Town and Country, Vogue and other publications. A French citizen of Senegalese and West Indian descent, she created Dar Tamsna – luxury villas in the Palmeraie of Marrakech – in 1989. She was a pioneer in the concept of merging exceptional private accommodation with a cultural and culinary experience. In 1999, she opened Ryad Tamsna, a restaurant-gallery-boutique in the Marrakech Medina. Her latest project, launched in 2001, is Jnane Tamsna, a boutique guest house of 17 bedrooms on a beautiful six acre estate in the heart of the Palmeraie. She is contributing editor of The New Moroccan Style by Susan Sully, published in 2003 by Clarkson and Potter.
Gary J. Martin PhD, FLS
Gary Martin, the Director of The
Global Diversity Foundation since its inception in 1999, studied botany and anthropology at university. He is the author of Ethnobotany: A Methods Manual and was the general editor of the People and Plants Handbook: Sources for Applying Ethnobotany to Conservation and Community Development from 1996 - 2001. He has been awarded Fulbright fellowships for his work in Mexico (1985) and Bolivia (1993 –1994), and received the 1998 Janaki Ammal Medal from the Society of Ethnobotanists, India. Since 1999, he has been a Research Fellow and Lecturer in the Anthropology Department at the University of Kent, where he teaches students in the Ethnobotany MSc. program. He became a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 2000 and, in 2001, he was voted president-elect of the Society for Economic Botany.
Mohamed Zahidi
Mohamed Zahidi was born and grew up in the Dades Valley in Ouarzazate, Morocco. A native speaker of Tamazight (a Berber language of the south of Morocco), he also speaks Arabic, English and French fluently. He studied English literature at the Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakesh. Upon graduating in 1990, Mohamed taught English at high school for seven years. During this period he developed an interest in tourism, and became the representative and lecturer for an American travel company. In 1997, he left teaching to become a nationally licensed guide, working fulltime for one of the largest and most reputable tour operators in Morocco. Since 1999, he has collaborated closely with Tamsna, helping to develop the series of Diversity Excursions that offer insights into the culture, ecology and history of Morocco. He is especially fond of taking clients to explore the south of Morocco, which keeps him close to his wife and two children in Marrakech, and his parents in Kelaa des Mgouna, a town known for its production of Damask roses.
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