Post #10. Oct 13th. Ouarzazate

The breakfast buffet at this hotel was much better than its dinner buffet the night before.  You could get a freshly made omelet, although you could only select from onions, tomatoes and cheese as toppings.  Most hotels we’ve been to have offered at least 6 choices.  

Mounaim came to get us for today’s tour and when he found out we hadn’t toured the hotel grounds, he led us on such tour.  I’m not sure we would have ventured into the areas he showed us as they were all behind a big closed door, so it was great to have him show it to us.  

Back of the hotel, where they are storing wood door for future use.  

The old grain storage room.  There were many rooms where grains were stored.  The steps in the foreground were used to access the upper storage rooms.  

Former rooms that were used as living spaces.  Inside was a mosque that is no longer in service (but you still couldn’t enter)

More living space.

This area was used as the school.

We then went on the hotel’s terrace and looked over the rear where they grow vegetables for their operations. 

Overlooking the back of the hotel operations.

We finished our impromptu tour of the hotel and went out front to meet Larribee.  We drive to Ouarzazate to Kasbah Tifoultoute.  Built in the 17th century, it was extended significantly in the 18th century.  The building is situated on a hilltop with sweeping views of the surrounding area.  It now a privately owned residence with the owner operating a restaurant and guest house.  When we first entered the parking lot there was only one bus and Larribee parked right in front of it blocking its exit.  Turns out he knew the bus driver and this was just fun kidding around.  

Larribee parked in front of the bus.   When we come out, Larribee had moved the van, and is sitting in the bus.  We suggest that we trade vehicles.  

We enter the Kasbah.  It does need some repair, particularly in the older sections.  We climb stairs to the rooftop terrace to take in the views of the lush valley below where the Ouarzazate river winds its way.  

The outside terrace.  It had some funky art on display.    

The inner courtyard.  This building had been covered with roof structure.  

Some of the ruins of the Kasbah from the original structure.  

The view of the river and lush valley below.

The next stop was Atlas Studios.  Ouarzazate is known for movie making since about the mid 1950s.  Movies filed in this area include Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Jewel of the Nile (1985), Gladiator (2000), Game of Thrones (2011-2019), Prison Break (2005-2017), the Mummy (1999), Kingdom of Heaven (2005) to name just a few.  Atlas Studios conducts a ton of studio tours every day for the bus loads of tourists coming through, so I suspect lots of its income comes from this source.  Also, the many tour guides are movie extras (at least ours was) and they supplement their income conducting these tours.  In fact, they tell you in their introductory remarks that tipping is very acceptable…)

The tour was interesting.  The studio is large and there are many sets that have been left up because they can be used for many other shoots.  Sets can be changed easily with new fabric draped around the columns or different furniture or fixtures added.  We saw many sets that had been used for multiple films.  It was very interesting how the sets could look so realistic on one side and the other side is just framing and plasterwork.  

This movie prop was in the Jewel of Nile.

Egyptian Tombs

Egyptian columns

View of a rock “wall”.  It’s plaster and the back side is just framing.  

Our tour guide.  When he’s not a tour guide he fills in as a movie extra.  He told us all the movies he’s been in, but I don’t remember them.  

We saw lots of set props placed around the studio and got to play on a few of them.   This is Judith driving a team of horses.  (Ben Hur?) 

After the studio tour we drove to visit Ben Haddou, a fortified village (Ksar) along the route between the Sahara and Marrakesh.  It has survived as a great example of Moroccan earthen clay architecture.  A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987, it is now covered in busloads of tourist and many souvenir sellers.  The site dates back to the 11th century, but nothing before the 17th century has survived.  This ksar located on a hill next to the Ounila River, had a strategic importance along one of the main trade routes between sub Saharan Africa and Northern Africa with trade conducted with caravans of camels across the Sahara Desert.  

Walking on the foot bridge over the Asif (river).  The mound in front is the structure where the grain was stored.  To the right is the walled city of Ben Haddou.

Inside the fortified city

Entering a covered space that opened up to more buildings in the walled city.

Panorama view of the walled city.

Close up of the earthen wall.  Straw and clay were mixed together and formed large bricks.  These were stacked and a coat of mud spread over to help bind them.  Rains will wash away the protective coat.  If the walls aren’t repaired the earthen walls will start to fall apart in a few years.  

The fortified village is now sparsely occupied as people have moved out to more modern accommodations across the river.  

The site has been used as a film location for a long list of movies including Lawrence of Arabia, the Jewel of the Nile, Gladiator and Game of Thrones. The site was damaged by the Sept 2023 earthquake that struck southern Morocco.  

All our guides at Atlas and our guide told us about this area of Ben Haddou where the film studio set up the gladiator ring for the Gladiator movie.  It didn’t have the significance to me that it seemed to have for others.  

This is a picture of a picture of what that gladiator ring looked like before it was dismantled.  

After touring Ben Haddou we walked over to Cafe Restaurant La Kasbah overlooking Ben Haddou.  We shared a set menu of Moroccan salad (tomatoes, cucumber, red onions in a vinegarette), a vegetable terrine and oranges with cinnamon sprinkled on top.

Walking to the restaurant.

We got back to the hotel early.  We thought about going for a walk in the town, but it seemed to begin to rain every point we thought about going.  Instead we went down to the buffet earlier than the day before and had more success with finding things to eat that weren’t so picked over.

There was a thunderstorm that night before I went to bed and I filmed a some of the lightning strikes.  There were a couple of big thunder cracks at about 2 in the morning that woke us up.   Lightning storms are rare where I live so I really appreciate a good storm.  

Tomorrow morning we’ll be leaving for Marrakech!