For many people the highlight of a visit to Morocco is a trip to the Sahara, the biggest desert on earth and a natural habitat that every traveller wants to see once in his life. I was a bit different from the others who only want to see the dunes, nevertheless. I hoped to see the desert of course, but I knew that I wanted to explore all of this fascinating region of North Africa, and especially to see with my own eyes that legendary citadel in the desert that seems to be made out of sand: Aїt Benhaddou. It's been used in dozens of movies: whenever they need an exotic city in the desert that barely seems real, they use it. It had been a dream of mine for some time to visit it, and so it was very high on my list of places to see in Morocco.
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| Ait Benhaddou |
Because the actual sand dunes are very far from Marrakesh - about 350 kilometres to Zagora and 550 kilometres to Merzouga - the tours from this city usually offer multi-day trips to the pre-Saharan region, with visits to kasbahs, gorges and Berber villages, as well as the classic camel ride and camp night in the desert. An alternative is to take a bus to Ouarzazate and then explore from there hiring a taxi or a private car, but seen the prices of the small-group tours I decided to join one. In this way, I also made many new friends from all over the world!
