Originally the domain of Berber tribes of the High Atlas, the history and politics of Central Morocco were irrevocably changed with the establishment of Marrakesh in 1062. The city was founded by the religious aesthetics, the Almoravids (of Arab ethnicity), and the Berbers were gradually driven from the Haouz plain to the isolated villages of the High Atlas, where they remain to this day. Over the next century Marrakesh grew rich and powerful on the back of the lucrative caravan trade which travelled the oasis valleys of the Dadès and Drâa. The exquisite luxury goods that returned from Niger, and the motley band of tribal traders attracted by the profits of the caravans, did much to establish the '1001 Nights' oriental mystique that still lingers over Marrakesh.