A Weekend in the Sahara Desert, Part 3: The Atlas Mountains and Ait Benhaddou
We wake up in the desert just after sunrise, it is still chilly and the views are not as spectacular as sunset, so we head into the heated tent for breakfast. Yidar planned to pick us up at 9:30am to begin the 5.5 hour drive to the mountain town of Ait Benhaddou, also known to Game of Thrones fans as Yunkai! The plan was to make the drive slowly, stopping in the once-famous town of Sijilmassa, as well as the Todgha Gorge. We planned to spend the night in Ait Benhaddou, flying out the next morning from the neighboring town of Ouarzazate.
(If you missed the beginning of our journey, click to see Part 1 and Part 2!)
Approximately an hour after leaving our camp site, Kam Kam Dunes, we arrive at Sijilmassa, also known as the Mesopotamia of Morocco. It was once a thriving Medieval city, famous for being THE major Northern Africa trade route city — controlling the export of gold from Southern Africa and amassing incredible wealth. Established in 757 AD, it thrived for nearly 650 years before its collapse in 1393 AD.
All of that said, you would never guess it was a city of lore from what currently stands — it is mostly a dilapidated old town. We walked through the markets and stopped at a spice shop, almost shocked at how run down this town has become. There is not much left from when it was the wealthiest city in North Africa.
Leaving Sijilmassa, we continued onwards for another two hours to Todgha Gorge. The gorge is located in the eastern part of the High Atlas Mountains and is made of limestone, slowly carved out by the Todgha and Dades Rivers. The gorge itself was pretty, but filled with tourists. I actually preferred the views of the ancient quarters of TInerhir / Tinghir built into the cliff sides on the drive into the gorge. After taking some photos, we went back into town for a quick lunch.
Once we had finished lunch, we piled back in the jeep because we still had three more hours of driving before arriving at our final destination, Ait Ben Haddou.
Along our drive we saw this symbol carved into many hillsides. Yidar explained that this is the symbol “yaz” which represents the Berber word amazigh– it translates to “free man” in English, which is what the Berbers call themselves. (I thought that was pretty bad ass).
As we neared Ait Benhaddou, we passed through Ouarzazate, home to Oscar Hotel, Atlas Studios and CLA Studios – this area is referred to as the “African Hollywood” or the “Hollywood of Morocco,” where scenes from movies like Gladiator, Babel and Prince of Persia were shot – both in the studios and the surrounding countryside
Just before sunset, we arrived outside of Ait Benhaddou. Ait Benhaddou is a “ksar” which is an Arabic word for a fortified city. It was once an important stop on the trans-Saharan route from Sudan to Marrakech for traders and caravans, often numbering in the hundreds – bringing gold, silver, and slaves to Marrakech in exchange for salt. It is a mud brick city and, unlike, Sijilmassa, you can still see the beauty and appeal this city once had. When the French built a new trade route in the 1930s that did not include Ait Benhaddou, the population plummeted. Currently only five families call the ksar their permanent home.
With sunset quickly approaching, we unloaded the jeep. There are no roads to Ait Benhaddou, so we needed to carry out luggage across a foot bridge into the medieval town to our lodging for the night, Dar El Haja. Dar El Haja is an old home, recently updated and converted into a hotel. It is built into the hillside, so many of the rooms feel partially like you are in a cave. There are several different levels, twists and turns, giving the hotel endless amounts of charm. After checking in, we hurried up to the top of the town to catch the spectacular sunset.
After the sun sets, the town completely shuts down. There is no electric grid, no street lights, very few restaurants, and no bars. The nearest ATMs are also a half hour drive away in Ouarzazate and nobody takes cards, so plan accordingly and make sure you have enough cash! The hotel itself has a limited amount of solar power and some common outlets. We had dinner at our hotel (they do not serve alcohol), and after the family finished serving us, they informed us they were going to bed (this was approximately 9:30pm). We went up to the roof deck to catch some great views of the stars before calling it a night.
We had arranged with the hotel for a taxi to pick us up on the other side of the river at 6am to drive to the airport for our 9am flight out of Ouarzazate to Casablanca. Because it is such a small town, you must pre-arrange transportation because there is NO ONE around before sunrise. It was a very cool experience walking out of the town, across the river, under the cover of darkness. The only light was from the stars above.
The next morning, despite a minor flight delay, we were home by noon. In just 60 hours we had: slept in the Sahara desert, ridden camels, visited a fossil factory, seen the famous medieval towns of Sijilmassa and Ait Benhaddou, listened to Sudanese/Berber live music, looked upon the starry-night sky, enjoyed massive amounts of Moroccan cuisine, and traveled into the Atlas Mountains. It was a perfect Sahara desert weekend, made quite a bit more pleasant by sufficient planning and some cheap flights.
Please let me know if you have questions about our itinerary or if you need help/recommendations planning your trip!
So much history!!! Loved your post!!!
Thanks, Pipi!! I had a lot of fun writing this one and learning about all the interesting history
It looks great! Kind of a whirlwind trip! Seems like maybe a little more time would needed to see things in more detail? Love the pictures and following along with you on your adventures!
John
Greetings! Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful Desert experience, I live in Paris and I want to take my family to Sahara Desert- It has been in my pocket list since forever!!!! How did you put it together? how did you choose cities to land and the whereabout? I’m thinking 6 days trip different cities or even shorter if I can see the dunes and some older cities
What do you recommend? aside of that Morocco is another one in my list what do you recommend ? Are you an Airbnb? or travel advisor?
Highly appreciated