Marrakech & the Sahara: red walls, kasbahs & the deep desert

Marrakech

Founded in the 11th century, Marrakech is the largest of Morocco's four imperial cities and the gateway to the south. Its walled medina, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is built almost entirely of pink-red pisé earth, which gives the city its nickname, the Red City.

The medina is organized around Jemaa el-Fna, a vast square that works as a market by day and an open-air food and performance ground by night. Radiating from it are the souks, covered lanes grouped by trade, and major monuments including the 12th-century Koutoubia Mosque, whose minaret is the tallest structure in the old city and a fixed reference point on the skyline.

Beyond the square, Marrakech holds a series of enclosed, richly decorated spaces to wander through: the carved cedar and stucco of the Ben Youssef Madrasa, the Saadian Tombs, and the cobalt-blue plantings of the Jardin Majorelle. The shift from the dim, narrow souks into these open courtyards is one of the city's defining experiences.

Where to take photos

• Jemaa el-Fna — the central square of the medina, liveliest at dusk when food stalls light up and crowds gather
• Koutoubia Mosque — a 12th-century landmark whose minaret rises above the old city and anchors the skyline
• Ben Youssef Madrasa — a former Quranic school with intricately carved cedar, stucco and zellij tilework around a central courtyard
• Jardin Majorelle — a botanical garden of bamboo and cacti set against cobalt-blue buildings, calmest early before crowds arrive

Ouarzazate

Set south of the High Atlas on the edge of the desert, Ouarzazate is a quiet provincial town that has become a center of Moroccan and international filmmaking, earning it the name Ouallywood. It serves as a base for visiting the surrounding kasbahs and oasis valleys.

The town's reputation rests on its film studios, including Atlas Studios and CLA Studios, where standing sets built for historical and biblical productions can be visited. The surrounding landscape of bare mountains and earthen architecture has stood in for many other places on screen.

Just outside town stands the Kasbah Taourirt, a large earthen fortress once associated with the Glaoui family, and a short drive away is Aït Benhaddou, a fortified village of stacked kasbahs that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has stood in for a dozen film and TV productions over the years.

Where to take photos

• Aït Benhaddou — a UNESCO-listed ksar of clustered earthen kasbahs, glowing warm across the riverbed at sunrise and sunset
• Kasbah Taourirt — a sprawling pisé fortress on the edge of Ouarzazate with a maze of rooms and rooftop views
• Atlas Studios — one of the world's largest film studios, with surviving sets from major productions open to visitors
• Fint Oasis — a green palm-filled valley south of town set against arid hills, a startling pocket of cultivation

Zagora

Zagora sits in the Draa Valley, a long oasis corridor of date palms following the Draa River toward the desert. It is a traditional staging point for camel treks and journeys deeper into the Sahara.

The town is best known for a weathered road sign reading Tombouctou 52 jours, a reference to the historic camel-caravan route to Timbuktu that once passed through the region. Around Zagora, the Draa Valley is thick with palm groves and small kasbahs built of mud brick.

Above the town rises Jebel Zagora, a hill with panoramic views over the palmeraie and the river. The valley's mix of green oasis and surrounding desert hills makes it a transitional landscape between the cultivated south and the open Sahara.

Where to take photos

• Draa Valley palmeraie — a dense corridor of date palms and earthen villages following the river, green against the surrounding desert
• Jebel Zagora — a hill above town with sweeping views over the oasis, especially fine at sunrise and sunset
• Tombouctou 52 jours sign — a famous marker referencing the historic caravan route to Timbuktu
• Amazrou — a nearby village with old kasbahs and a long-standing Jewish quarter on the edge of the palm groves

Erg Chigaga

Erg Chigaga is the largest and most remote field of Saharan dunes accessible from southern Morocco, reached by a long off-road drive beyond the end of the paved road at M'Hamid. Its isolation keeps it far quieter than Morocco's more visited dune fields.

The erg stretches roughly 40 kilometers and rises to dunes of around 300 meters, forming a broad sea of sand without nearby towns or roads. Reaching it requires a four-wheel-drive vehicle, and most visitors stay in tented desert camps set among the dunes.

Because it lies so far from settlements, Erg Chigaga has some of the darkest night skies in Morocco and an unbroken horizon of dunes in every direction. The remoteness, the scale and the silence make it the most rewarding place to spend a night out in the Moroccan Sahara.

Where to take photos

• Erg Chigaga dunes — a vast, remote sand sea with high crests that you can climb at dawn and dusk
• M'Hamid — the last settlement before the desert, marking the end of the paved road and the start of the off-road crossing
• Lake Iriqui — a seasonal dry lakebed crossed en route, occasionally holding water that draws birdlife
• Desert night sky — an extraordinary spread of stars far from any light pollution, seen straight from camp

Tamgroute

Tamgroute is a small town in the lower Draa Valley known for two things: a centuries-old religious library and a tradition of distinctive green-glazed pottery. It makes a focused, lesser-visited stop between Zagora and the desert.

The town grew around the Zaouia Naciria, a religious complex and Sufi center whose library preserves a collection of antique manuscripts, including illuminated Qurans and works on science and law. The zaouia long served as a place of learning and pilgrimage in the region.

Tamgroute is also a center for green pottery, fired in communal underground kilns and finished with a copper-derived glaze that gives the wares their characteristic green tone. You can walk through the potters' quarter, where stacked ceramics fill the earthen workshops and the kilns smoke below ground.

Where to take photos

• Zaouia Naciria library — a historic religious library holding antique illuminated manuscripts in the heart of the town
• Tamgroute potters' quarter — underground kilns and workshops producing the town's signature green-glazed ceramics
• Green pottery displays — rows of glazed bowls and plates stacked outside the workshops, rich in color and texture
• Underground ksar — old earthen tunnels and passageways within the village, cool and shaded to walk through

Local flavors of Marrakech & the Sahara, Morocco

Jemaa el-Fnaa night food market

As dusk falls, Marrakech's main square erupts into a smoky maze of food stalls grilling skewers, simmering soups and frying fish. Pull up a bench, point at whatever smells best, and eat shoulder-to-shoulder with locals under the lantern light.

More guides to explore

Morocco

Morocco: Marrakech, Fes, Chefchaouen & the Coast

Tamgroute, Morocco

Tamgroute Travel Guide: Green Pottery on the Road to the Sahara

Chefchaouen, Morocco

2 Days in Chefchaouen: Morocco's Blue City