Comin' 'Round the Mountains

23-Oct-23

We left Marrakesh to start driving east into the High Atlas Mountains. They have some of the highest peaks in North Africa (over 13,000 ft) - they looked HUGE even from miles & miles away! We lucked out in being about to see some of the first snow fall of the year off in the distance.

The first of many stops at co-op shops was to a women's cooperative that makes argan oil products. Can't say I'm a fan of the taste but it does wonders on the hair! It was cool to see how the nuts are processed into oils & pastes but while us Westerners thought we were helping the women by buying their products direct, we later learned these stores were a bit of a tourist trap, as the co-op products were available in regular stores for a fraction of the price 😄 Not the first or last time we've such gullible tourists 🙃

The varied landscapes through the Atlas Mountains were beautiful - from orchards to scrub, to desserts & oases. Clearly, I was not very knowledgeable about Morocco's geography before coming here but I was incredibly impressed at the vast open spaces & huge skies (very reminiscent of TX that way). 

Rainbow cloud!

Recent rain (start of winter) had filled some rivers that overflowed onto the roads (all still passable though)

We ended up driving through some of the areas that were affected by the recent earthquake. The government has provided large temporary blue tents for families to use while they rebuild. In more crowded cities, you can see a lot of wooden scaffolding holding up the old brick buildings.

The highlight of the day was visiting Ksar (fortified city) of Ait Ben Haddou. It's now a UNESCO World Heritage Site but it was first established in the 11th century as a riverside village along the caravan route from Marrakesh to the Sahara Desert (kinda the route we were taking!). 

The current earthen clay buildings only date back at far as the 17th century but even that's still impressive by American standards! The site did suffer damage front the recent earthquake but thankfully very few families still live there - most have moved into modern buildings (with electricity & running water) across the river from the historic preservation site. 

Preserved (double) Door

Clay bricks

The bricks are carried by donkeys

Earthquake damage

Looking out over the Ounila River from the top of the ksar

Ait Ben Haddou's biggest claim to fame (for modern Westerners, at least) is all the movies & TV shows that have been shot here. "Lawrence of Arabia" might be the most famous, as the fake city gates they built on set still stand. "Gladiator" & its upcoming sequel were both shot here (so yes, Helen Fox, I likely stood in the same place-ish as Denzel Washington! 😜)

LofA gate on the right

Cleared field recently used to film Gladiator II

More exciting for me & Kate was that GOT was shot here, using the old city as the backdrop for Yunkai in Slaver's Bay! Not far from here, we also visited Atlas Studios in Ouarzazate - the world's largest film studio (spanning both desert & mountains) - used as the set of Pentos for GOT! From  a him to Vista, we could see some of the set recently used for Gladiator II. I was also excited to learn that "Jewel of the Nile" was founded here in the 80s! (For Nick's entertainment, Amazing Race was shot here as well). Pretty much, if it was big budget with open desert backgrounds, it might have been filled here 😃

Atlas Studios backlots

Set recently used in Gladiator II

We made it to the Rose Valley just in time for sunset. A beautiful valley, covered on field after field of pink flowers, our guide told us that Damask roses were first brought to the valley in the 1930s by the French to make rose water. I did not appreciate how much goes into a small bottle of rose oil! Three tons for just one liter of rose oil. 😯 So of course, we visited a rose product co-op for rose tea & scented lotions 😉

Catching the rain coming in