Ouarzazate

This is the land of the Glaoua and the great caravan routes, where fortified earthen kasbahs and ksour guarded the trade between the Sahara and the north. The Taourirt Kasbah in town and, above all, Aït Benhaddou nearby, are the most spectacular survivors, living monuments to a mud-brick architecture perfectly adapted to the desert.

Ouarzazate's clear light, dramatic scenery and film-friendly infrastructure have made it a global production hub. Its studios have hosted countless epics and series; you can tour the sets, and the surrounding landscapes are a highlight in themselves, from rose valleys to gorges and film-famous horizons.

Most travellers reach Ouarzazate over the High Atlas via the Tizi n'Tichka pass from Marrakech, then continue east toward the Dades and Todra gorges and the dunes of Merzouga. As the crossroads of these routes, it is the ideal place to break the journey and drink in the scale of the south.