Ouarzazate, Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou and Marrakech

We left our camels in the morning for a twenty four hour whirwind of stops before leaving Morocco. First, we stopped at Ouarzazate, the leading city for Morocco's movie industry. "Ouarzawood's" first famous film was Lawrence of Arabia, produced by the Atlas Corporation Studios. Upon our arrival at Atlas, we passed the actors and actresses from the BBC TV series Atlantis. They were just heading for an offsite shoot. We toured the sets of several movies and TV series, including Gladiator, The Mummy Returns, Journey to Mecca, Kun Dun, Ben Hur and Cleopatra. The props and sets looked so amazing; but, on closer inspection, those thick stone walls were really bamboo pools with a thin layer of plaster; temple pillars were hollow; the Gladiator chariots were rusted iron piping. In the noon day sun, the set was sweltering; and, it was only May. I don't envy the actors and actresses who shoot scenes here.

From Ourzazate, we drove 30 km outside of the city to the kasbah made famous in Lawrence of Arabia, Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou. Originally, it was a fortress for approximately 50 middle class and six upper class families with a total of 166,000 inhabitants. However, today, only a few families still live in the kasbah. Most have moved across the flooding riverbed to the small town, which has access to a main road. We climbed the straits and steps to the very top of the kasbah, which used to be the final fortress and storehouse, if the kasbah came under siege. Beautiful view!

Finally, we drove to the exotic city of Marrakech. We thought about simply stopping for a couple of hours and then flying straight to Barcelona. However, our tour company insisted that we needed to see the central square at night in Marrakech. We stayed in the medina, or old city, in Marrakech and wandered through the souks, or shopping areas, until we came to the main square: Jemaa al-Fnaa. Due to tourism, the entire area is very well signed with areas pointing to Jemaa al-Fnaa and various areas within the souks. The Jemaa al-Fnaa was a beehive of activity. There were street performers--snake charmers, magicians, dancers. If we stopped for more than 60 seconds, roving vendors would approach us. Fresh produce (dates, almonds, tangerines) booths lined one section and restaurants lined another. The greetings of "Bonjour, Hola, Hello" filled the air as we strolled past the sensory overload. What a great way to end our tour of Morocco!

For those who would like to travel to Morocco, I highly recommend our tour company, which provided us with a private van and driver and created an itinerary for our timeframe and places we wanted to see: http://www.thetravelsource.net/