A ksar is a fortified village. The Ksar of Ait Benhaddou has several perfectly intact kasbahs and you will sight a incredible adobe mud built village. A kasbah is a fortified house.

You can visit Ait Benhaddou on a short drive from Ouarzazate as this site is located just about 30km away. This is one of the most photogenic places around Ouarzazate and you should not miss at least a 2 hours visit to this amazing location.

Due to Ait Benhaddou’s interesting architecture, this place has been chosen to be the main scenario for films such as Lawrence of Arabia (in 1962), The Man Who Would Be King (in 1975), The Message (in 1976), Jesus of Nazareth (in 1977), Time Bandits (1981), The Jewel of the Nile (in 1985), The Living Daylights (in 1987), The Last Temptation of Christ (in 1988), The Sheltering Sky (in 1990), Kundun (in 1997), The Mummy (in 1999), Gladiator (in 2000), Alexander (in 2004) and Kingdom of Heaven (in 2005).

Video Ait Benhaddou, perfect setting for movie pictures

Aït Benhaddou a tiny town 30 km from Ouarzazate is best known for their houses built of clay: the Kasbah. This huge Kasbah in the past has been made larger and larger and figured as the set for many films like Lawrence of Arabia and more recently the Jewel of the Nile and Gladiator. (video by www.travelbyphoto.nl)

Very interesting to visit, this ksar has the Ounila River on the way, so, you have to cross the river to go and enter the village. Either you take your shoes out and cross, or you can take a short camel trekking to the other side by paying a small fee.

A walk around Ouarzazate city center and Taourirt Kasbah is quite a pleasant journey. You can also walk from Tassoumaat up to the city center on 10 minutes, and further more to Taourirt Kasbah with more 10 minutes.

On a Sunday morning you can walk to the weekly market called souk. Here you can enjoy the most lively market in the region and where thousands of people gather for their weekly grocery shopping and business.

You can walk in the city center market place, where right after and before sunset turns into the most active part of the city. Ouarzazate people go out and boys and girls, men and women come and walk and promenade a little bit. Best time also to enjoy a tea in some street cafe.

Taourirt kasbah in Ouarzazate

If you’re up to a good hiking you can walk 15km from Ouarzazate city center all the way to Fint Oasis, a magnificent oasis surrounded by amazing mountains.

You can also walk until the lake, or even the Tifoultoute Kasbah near the cinema studios also reachable by walking 30 minutes from the city center.

Tifoultoute kasbah in Ouarzazate

If you’re really into serious hiking and long walks, you can even walk to the Ait Benhaddou in a 35km distance from the city center. You will cross rivers and desert mountains, lost Berber villages and probably end up in some local people’s house drinking Moroccan tea.

Oasis Fint in Ouarzazate

If you want to explore the desert plateaus outside Ouarzazate, just 4km from the city center you can adventure yourself to discover the lost cinema studios, you have the huge city of Jerusalem from the movie The Kindgom of Heaven, and the Holy City of Meca, and also another film set of Jerusalem after the Tifoultoute Kasbah. These are very interesting places to explore by your own, but only if you’re into walking.

Film set of The Kindgom of Heaven in Ouarzazate

Check out the film Kingdom of Heaven Trailer:

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Taourirt if without a doubt the most worth of both districts and here you can walk around and enjoy a small village with tiny little streets all build in mud. You can explore by your own or get a guide (you’ll have plenty of guides trying to take you on a tour paying a fee which is always advisable to deal first not in the end).

Taourirt kasbah in Ouarzazate

You can visited several nice places in Taourirt, mosques and even an old Jewish synagogue. In the entrance of Taourirt Ksar, you have the gorgeous Taourirt Kasbah that you pay 60 Dirhams to visit. You can also get a official guided tour which a uy takes you around the huge building and telling you all about it.

Also in front of the Taourirt Kasbah you have the interesting Cinema Museum which should not be confused by the cinema studios that exist in Ouarzazate.

Taourirt view from above the kasbah in Ouarzazate

If you also want to explore another interesting local neighborhood of Ouarzazate, you can go to Tassoumaat and discover a place where not many tourist go. You can go to the river bank, play football with the local children and wonder around its old streets. Local small market on Friday in the square called zkaia. You can stay in a very nice riad hotel in Tassoumaat called Dar Rita, visit the page of this Hotel Ouarzazate here on the website.

Tassoumaat street in Ouarzazate

Apart from exploring Tassoumaat streets you can also go and walk in the river bank, explore the little vegetable garden made by local old people, lots of flowers, sheep and palm trees. Don’t be surprised to be followed by young children that might find curious to see a foreigner in their neighborhood.

Tassoumaat river bank in Ouarzazate

Skoura Oases is one of the few palm groves in Morocco still inhabited and cultivated by local people, a tradition that still prevails among modern times. There are about 30.000 people around the oases and about 140.000 palm trees.

Skoura is the first village on the road that leads to Dades Valley, Kelaat M’Gouna on the Rose Valley and Gorges du Todra further more near Tinghir just before Sahara Desert.

Skoura Oasis is a fabulous place to visit on a short trip from Ouarzazate and can be combined also on a visit to Toundount, a near by village on the bottom of M’Goun Mountain Peak. Skoura is famous for its numerous incredible kasbahs, including the Kasbah of Amerhidil shown on the old Moroccan notes of 50 Dirhams.

Kasbah of Amerhidil in Skoura around Ouarzazate

Thing to visit in and around Skoura are the Kasbah of Amerhidil dating from the 17th century and built by the family or ben Nasser the lively Monday market (souk), the oases fields, irrigation canals, the olive press; and around Skoura you can visit the salt mines of Toundounte, the village of Sidi Flah and the Dades Valley.

Fint Oasis in Ouarzazate

Fint Oasis is an incredible oasis surrounded by beautiful mountains, and this place is home to several unique villages that still maintain a different cultural life unique in the region. Being home of remaining African tribes that stayed after the sub-Sarhara camel caravans stop, these people took the Berber culture and somehow mixed their own way of life into something very interesting today.

Fint Oasis in Ouarzazate

In Oasis Fint you can visit the villages, the local ceramic workshops and enjoy the magnificent sunset in Hotel La Terrace des Delices, a hotel with amazing view over the palm grove, the river, the mountains and the surrounding villages.

Ouarzazate is the perfect place to start and engage on an adventure tour in south Morocco. You can chose your type of trip with different types of services provided by different companies in Ouarzazate.

Adventure Tours in Ouarzazate can take you to chose kart vehicles, ATV motor bikes, KTM enduro off-road bikes, ATB all terrain bicycles or even just trekking the mountains of Morocco walking.

On this page you have several different companies that provide adventure tours in and around Ouarzazate region.

3 days Buggy Tour: Ouarzazate to Tazzarine

(3 days tour from Ouarzazate, prices start from 616 Euros)

If you’re searching for Buggy / kart Tours in Ouarzazate, this varied adventure trip around Ouarzazate, this tour with kart buggy will take you to discover trails and beautiful mountain villages of Jebel Saghro and the vast plains of the desert. The Todra Gorges, Dades Valley and Draa Valley will make this adventure very exotic, not to mention the wonderful night camping in the palm grove.

• Company & Adress: Kart Aventure, Bd Moulay Rachid – Zone hôtelière, 45000 Ouarzazate
• Email: kartaventure@gmail.com
• Oficial Website: www.kartaventure.com -> Buggy tours Morocco
• Phone: +212.524.886.374

4 days Mountain Trekking: Rose Valley Trail

(4 days mountain trekking from Ouarzazate, prices start from 200 Euros)

Amazing trekking taking you all the way from the Rose Valley to the village of Nkob, crossing the great Saghro Mountains. You will be taken from Ouarzazate to Ait Youl early in the morning where you will start your trek.

The highlights of this trekking in Morocco will be mountain crossing with fantastic landscapes near Tizi n’Tagmout and Assaka n’Ait Ouzine. Experience untouched regions of Morocco and trek within unique mountain views and impressive off the beaten path Berber villages.

• Company & Adress: Ichou le Berbere Excursions, 45000 Ouarzazate
• Email: ouarzazatetrek@gmail.com
• Oficial Website: www.ichouleberbere.com -> Mountain Trekking Morocco
• Phone: +212.66.617.7610

5 days Enduro KTM Bike Tour: Desert Trail

(5 days trail off-road bike from Ouarzazate, prices start from 200 Euros)

Rugged mountain passes, sand dunes, Dakar rallye tracks, dry lake beds, stunning oases, clusters of palm trees surrounded by rock and sand, breathtaking canyons, gorges and cliffs. If you only came to Morocco one time in your life, this is the trip you would want to take.

Day 1: Ouarzazate to Tamalout (see the rest of this tour on the company official website)

A good introduction to desert riding. Mainly fast and smooth tracks in the morning, give valuable experience of gravel cornering skills. A deep gravel river bed provides a challenge halfway through the morning, though we make sure there are enough stops for you to catch your breath. We will happily offer riding tips as the day progresses for those who need them.

A picnic lunch followed by another one of those gravel river beds then a traverse of a large plain on fast, packed clay tracks, bring us to the village where we will spend the night. A cosy mountain hostel in a beautifully cultivated gorge, overlooking the Mgoun river.

• Company & Adress: Wilderness Wheels Morocco, #61 Hay Al-Qods, 45000 Ouarzazate
• Email: infos@wildernesswheels.com
• Oficial Website: www.wildernesswheels.com -> KTM tours Morocco
• Phone: +212.524.888.128

Riad Dar Rita is one of the first Marrakech riad type opening in Ouarzazate. Offering excellent service and amenities, Dar Rita has 7 fully equipped room with private toilet and air conditioner.

English speaking hotel in Ouarzazate, Riad Dar Rita is located in one of the traditional districts of Ouarzazate called Tassoumaat, right on the city’s entrance coming from Marrakech.

New Years Morocco in Riad Dar Rita New Years Party 2011/2012

Hotel Ouarzazate Dar Rita