Highlights of a 4-day tour from Marrakech to Merzouga
Todgha Gorges:
People think that the Todra Gorge in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains is one of the most beautiful valleys in the world.
The Todra and Dades rivers cut 40 kilometers of tunnels through the mountains, making the landscape look really different. The last 600 meters of the canyon are called Todgha. Some parts of this tunnel are only 10 meters wide, while other parts have rocks that are over 150 meters high. These gorges were made by strong natural forces that are now only in your mind since the river has dried up.
Even though the gorge is in a remote part of Morocco, it has become a famous place for tourists to visit over the years. You can hike in the mountains, and there is also a well-kept dirt road that people have to share with horses and other pack animals.
The town of Tinghir was built to house visitors and locals who travel through the area on camels bringing their stuff. In 2004, there were almost 90,000 people living in Tinghir, with 36,000 of them living there permanently. The city, which is in the Ouarzazate region, is mostly inhabited by the Amazigh, which is how many Berbers call themselves. The Amazigh are a native North African group who live west of the Nile Valley. Names of these people mean something like “free people” or “free and noble people.”
The Atlas Mountains in Morocco
ATLAS (Atlas Mountains): The Atlas Mountains are in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, all in the northwest of Africa. The Atlas Mountains are a mountain range in northwest Africa, in what is now Berberia. The mountains were known by the same name in ancient times, but not many people have been there recently. There are 2,092 kilometers between the mountains. The tallest hill is Mount Toubkal, which is in the southwest of Morocco and is 4,167 meters high.
There are about 2,000 kilometers of it. It has the Tel Atlas, the High Atlas, the Middle Atlas, and the Saharan Atlas mountain ranges. It also has valleys and high plateaus (the High Plateau and the Moroccan Meseta). The East African Plateau is broken up by faults and is home to the continent’s tallest mountain, Kilimanjaro (5963 m), which is no longer active. There is a mountain area in Africa called the Lord Aberdare area. It is in the middle of Kenya, north of Nairobi.
The rocks and landforms of Africa:
From Worcester Mountain, the rocks and landscapes of Africa go west and then north. Most fynbos has secondary thickets of evergreen trees in the west. These are found on hills that face the wind. In the east, mixed coniferous-leaved forests grow on brown and mountain-forest brown soils. The Great East African cracks are the biggest cracks in the earth’s crust that are on land. They are in East Africa.
in Africa, there are two tropical belts, two sub-tropical belts, and two equatorial belts. There are warm areas in both the very north and very south of the continent. The Sahara Desert in North Africa is the driest place on Earth. In the past, the Phoenicians were the first people to learn about the Atlas Mountains. Hi, my name is Ji Hanzelka and I’m an engineer from Czechoslovakia. I take my Tatra 87 car and drive through North Africa.
It looks at everyday life in Africa, the “Black Continent’s” geography, society, and other things, as well as its long history. There were a lot of important events in the last fifty years that the author writes about in this book. In Tangier, there was an exciting 30-minute chase in the movie “Bourne Identification.” There were fights and explosions. Atlas was only a part of the mountain range in old Mauretania. Today, Mauretania is west of and in the middle of the modern Atlas.
This country is mostly made up of Arabs and Berbers (from Morocco), which includes the Kabyle. There are still a few Berbers living in the High Atlas Mountains. They have kept all of their traditions alive. The great giant Atlas is talked about in Homer’s Greek tales and songs, which were written between the 12th and 7th centuries B.C. In stories, Atlas was sometimes called the African king. But he had a problem: the Greek hero Perseus asked to stay with Atlas, but Atlas was rude and said no.
Ait Benhaddou:
On our 4-day tour from Marrakech to the Merzouga Sahara desert, we plan to hike up Ait Benhaddou. It was once a caravanserai on the route of trans-Saharan caravans and is now Morocco’s most colorful and real sight, on par with Ouarzazate, which has been the subject of many Hollywood movies.
Whatever role this small town in the Atlas Mountains has played—Jerusalem in “Jesus of Nazareth,” an empty fortress in “Lawrence of Arabia,” and an empty jungle home in “The Jewel of the Nile”—Ait Benhaddou is truly impressive. Its red-walled Kasbah fortress, which dates back to the 11th century, sits against a hill, and the emerald date oasis at its base makes you feel like you’re on a different planet.
Things to look at:
The ancient fortress-Xar (“castle”) is the only thing that makes Ait Benhaddou worth seeing. The village is in the Xar. It is built into the side of a rock and has thick red walls around it. The Ait Benhaddou kasbah has been well taken care of since it is on the UNESCO list and has been filmed a lot. The walls are regularly restored, which makes you feel like you’re going back in time—it looks like the 11th century and another caravan is about to leave the fortress gates for Timbuktu. There are two ways to get into the fortress: the new bridge or the dry river bed.
Clay dirt is used to make adobe bricks, which are used to build the walls of Ait Benhaddou.
At the top of the hill, there is an old granary that is almost completely destroyed. It is worth the walk, though, just to get a great view of the town and the Atlas mountains in the distance. A ancient tomb and shrine dedicated to the monk Benhaddou is on the other side of the hill. The city is named after him.
Desert of Merzouga:
Merzouga is a small town in the Moroccan Sahara. It is the best part of our four-day desert tour from Marrakech to Merzouga. The big desert in this country is mostly made up of dry, cracked ground. But here, the usual sand mounds are one, two, and more. To be more exact, there is only one place like this. It is near the city of Merzouga. Its homes and huts are at the base of Erg-Chebbi, a huge (50 by 5 km) sand dunes mountain that rises 350 meters high.
There isn’t any built-up infrastructure; the only things that make up society are a few grocery stores, coffee shops, and restaurants. Many people who go to Merzouga want to experience the real Berber way of life, not just relax on soft pillows in a hotel room.
Things to look at:
Extreme tourists who want to go deep into the Sahara start their journey in Merzouga. People think that the area around the hotel is one of the best places to go to see the natural beauty of the Great African Desert. A huge stretch of dunes up to 350 meters high is what draws people to Merzouga. The sandhills are especially beautiful when the sun comes up because the shadows on the hills look like they blend together in the first rays, making a complicated design.
Merzouga and the area around it can only be reached on foot because the town is so small. It is better to walk in the nights or early mornings, though, because the desert is too hot during the day.
The small lake Dayet Srij, which is west of Merzouga, is another interesting place to visit. It only gets wet after it rains a lot or in the winter, which brings thousands of birds. In this area, you can often see pink flamingos, storks, ducks, and other birds.
What to do:
As was already said, the main reason people go to Merzouga is to go on a camel tour through the Erg Chebbi dunes. Before you go to the desert, buy a scarf to cover your head and neck from the sun. For one night in the desert, the trips cost 55 EUR. There are tents, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and water for everyone. The first night, most groups stay in big Berber camp towns. You can also get dinner here, and sometimes there is live folk music. Before it gets too hot, breakfast is given very early in the morning.
There are tour groups that have their own tent towns that have everything you could need. These kinds of trips cost more, but the comfort is worth it.
The weather in Merzouga is:
From November to February, winter is very cold (+10 °C), with sunny days and frosty nights. Spring starts in April and is pretty nice. During the day, it gets up to +30 °C, and at night, it stays cool. Summers are known for being very hot.
In the winter and spring, it rains a few times a month, but it doesn’t usually pour down. People say that February through April is the best time to visit Merzouga. We really think you should go on the 4-day desert tour in the spring from Marrakech to Merzouga.
4-day tour from Marrakech to Merzouga to see the Merzouga Erg Chebbi Desert.
On an amazing 4-day tour that starts in Marrakech, you can see the stunning beauty of the Merzouga Erg Chebbi desert. The beautiful dunes of Erg Chebbi are 35 kilometers from Rissani, 50 kilometers from Erfoud, and 140 kilometers from Errachidia.
The unique temperature and desert scenery show how well sand (“erg”) and stone (“hamada”) go together. Along the dry rivers are areas where migrant communities used to grow. Today, only a few ruins of these villages can be seen.
There are tall dunes in the dune complex (ERG), which is 22 kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide. Some of the dunes can reach a height of 150 meters. There are three cute towns spread out across the land, each surrounded by palm trees. To the east is Hassi Labied, which is known for its palm grove. To the south, 5 kilometers away, Merzouga has grown thanks to more tourists and farming. Khemliya is 6 kilometers south of Merzouga and is known for having a large black African population in the past. The Stony Hamada goes all the way to Algeria, east of Erg Chebbi.
Periodic and short rainstorms happen, but the flooding along the dunes in 2006 was especially bad. It destroyed many houses and sadly killed three.
Start a 4-day trip through the stunning scenery, fascinating cultures, and one-of-a-kind charm of Merzouga’s Erg Chebbi desert. In this beautiful part of Morocco, you can enjoy the warm welcome of the locals, see amazing sunsets over the dunes, and make memories that will last a lifetime.
