Through the Atlas Mountains

To help make the most of our limited time in Morocco, we booked a two-day private guided tour through the Atlas Mountains. The tour took us across the mountains, visiting fortified Bedouin towns, stunning kasbahs and a desert oasis. By the time we returned to Marrakech, we’d driven more than 500 km. It was a wonderful contrast to the relentless hustle and bustle of Marrakech.

Addellatif, our driver and guide, picked us up from our Riad shortly after 8:00am. We’d requested an early start to get the most out of the daylight hours. This proved to be a smart move. We enjoyed a blockbuster sunrise over the Atlas Mountains while driving through some stunning foothills. Around every corner, the early rays edged their way into the valleys below, lighting the desert haze in spectacular style.

We stopped briefly for a light lunch shortly before reaching Tizi n’Tichka, a mountain pass, which at 2260 metres, marked the highest point of our journey. The final stretch of highway to the summit featured a spectacular series of curving switchbacks. Our guide stopped at a lookout where we could soak in the desolate mountainscape and marvel at the engineering skill required to build such a road.

We then turned off the main highway and made our way through the picturesque Ounilla Valley. The road winds its way through dry, barren and fragmented rock canyons, each more photogenic than the last. Our guide explained how villages used subterranean groundwater along the river and river flats to sustain their existence. Adobe brick made from local red mud and straw is the primary building material.

As a result, everywhere we drove, we’d encounter flat-roofed red brick buildings nestled on the hillside, sitting above the river’s ancient flood line. This included more than one breathtaking village, denoted by jagged lines of red brick, random geometric shapes and deep shadows. At times the scene was something straight out of a classic Hollywood film. Scars from the recent earthquake were also visible, with ruined walls and buildings randomly scattered through the landscape.  However, it was often their recent replacements that stood out.

Thousands were killed by the quake in 2023 when entire adobe villages collapsed or were flattened by landslides that crushed and buried their occupants. In response to this disaster, the Government has funded rebuilding programs using more robust concrete block construction. As a result, many villages were dotted with distinctive grey buildings standing alongside their red brick neighbours. In places, entire neighbourhoods consisted of these new, rather drab, grey constructions.

Our guide took us on a detour to view one of the area’s ancient salt mines. The hills in many places are streaked by veins of white salt. We followed the path of a stream whose bed was awash with ribbons of salt until we stumbled upon the mine’s decaying ruins. By chance, we discovered one intact salt crystallisation pond once used to dry the briny water and extract its salt. Long crystal shards rimmed the pond in spectacular style.

However, our next stop was the highlight of our day. The fortified adobe village of Ait Benhaddou is one of Morocco’s most iconic sights. For more than half a century, this hillside village has been the backdrop for a myriad of Hollywood blockbusters. Known as a ksar, or fortified village, it was an important rest stop on a former caravan trading route between the Sahara and Marrakesh.

Today, the ksar itself is only sparsely inhabited by several families. Its progressive depopulation over time reflects the valley's loss of strategic importance over the last century. The caravan trade is long gone, and the modern highway follows a more westerly route. These days, most local inhabitants live in modern dwellings in a village on the other side of the river, making a living from agriculture and the tourist trade.

We hired a local guide to take us through the village and up to the granary store that caps the hill upon which the village is built. Our visit coincided with construction work for a new movie. Film crews are banned from filming in the village itself. As a result, movie studios erect temporary structures on the outskirts, using the real village as a dramatic backdrop. Incredibly, an entire fake fort was being constructed alongside the village’s actual Kasbah fort.

Our guide explained that dozens of movies, including Games of Thrones and Gladiator, were filmed here. He was once hired as an extra for Gladiator. That's him on set in the photo above. Apparently, an entire amphitheatre was built for the movie. Then, once filming was done, as required by local ordinances, the entire structure was removed. A similarly spectacular soundstage was being constructed on the same site during our visit.

Our guide explained the importance of the village granary that crowned the local hilltop.  In ancient times, the granary was considered a strategic and critical structure. It housed the entire village's annual harvest and kept it fed through the lean winter months. In essence, if you controlled the town's granary, you controlled the population.  As a result, granaries were typically built on high ground and heavily fortified to protect them from invaders. Sadly, the granary at Ait Benhaddou was destroyed in the 2023 earthquake. However, our guide told us it's scheduled for rebuilding later this year.

Honestly, Ait Benhaddou was every bit as dramatic and memorable as the best of Oman’s restored forts that we visited more than a decade ago. My photos barely do it justice. We finally finished our day with an hour-long drive to Skoura, a sprawling oasis in the Ouarzazate Province. Follow this link to learn about our adventures in the oasis.