Tizi N'Tichka - Ouarzazate - Aït Benhaddou

During a trip, the place making you click the shutter the most is the one that proves to be beautiful. In Morocco, this title belongs to the day trip to Ouarzazate and Aït Benhaddou from Marrakech. With a tour price of less than 20 USD per person, it’s truly a bargain.

The Most Moroccan Scenery

I left Koutoubia early as the first passenger to be picked up. Next were an elderly French couple and two English couples, all staying at resorts scattered around Marrakech and quite far from the Medina. After a long round, the van finally hit the National Route N9, the road running through that day’s entire journey.

The first stretch was quite straight across the flat plain, and I lost count of how many roundabouts there were that looked exactly the same. The interesting thing about this part was that the van’s heading eastwards, so I could see the red round sun rising higher and higher, casting beautiful light and shadows of people and cars in the hazy air filled with sand dust.

As the van gradually approached the town of Aït Ourir by the Zat River, the scenery started to change - it was overwhelming and majestic with layers of rolling mountains shrouded in early morning mist. The shutter clicked incessantly, while me the tourist was confused about considering where to look with bare eyes and where to be captured with camera.

If you ask what the most ‘Moroccan’ scenery is, this would be the answer: it’s the reddish brown soil with a pinkish hue, which I call the Moroccan red color.

The National Route N9 cuts across stunning geological formations, and on Google Maps you can see the folded mountains looking like a cross-section of a tree trunk.

Our van stopped by the Complexe Mandar restaurant for breakfast. I ordered a cup of hot cocoa and a plate of scrambled eggs, then took the chance to snap the valley spreading out before my eyes. The high mountain atmosphere was cold but the sun was warm, it’s so refreshing.

Tizi N’Tichka

The van started to climb up and enter the mountainous area of the High Atlas Mountains. From the van, we could see the towering peaks surrounding us, and sometimes there’re trees and houses perched on the cliffs.

After winding through countless bends, the van reached the summit of Tizi N’Tichka Pass at 2,205m above sea level - it’s also the highest pass in North Africa. Tizi N’Tichka Pass, now part of National Route N9, is the road connecting Marrakech to Ouarzazate, and further on to the Sahara Desert.

The driver, as well as many other tour vans, chose a very ideal spot to stop: below was the road curving softly around the mountainside, with vehicles moving slowly on it like toy models.

As it’s a high mountain area with dry and cold climate, the presence of trees gradually disappeared, revealing the folds of the terrain.

From this position, the van started to descend and enter a drier and hotter area, now within the province of Ouarzazate. The driver made a stop at an argan oil cooperative store by the road, yet none of us bought anything.

Ouarzazate

Ouarzazate has the characteristic arid terrain as it lies in the rain shadow of the High Atlas Mountains. The landscape here is almost entirely covered in the reddish yellow hue of the soil and sand.

Atlas Studios

The first stop was Atlas Studios in the midday sun. Atlas Studios was built in the middle of a vast and empty desert land not far from the city. Thanks to this feature, with a stable climate and easily expandable space, they have contributed to the success of the studio, as well as the entire film industry in Ouarzazate.

Many famous movies have chosen this place as their filming location: Gladiator, The Mummy, Prison Break, etc. Many of the constructions here are still intact and have become tourist attractions.

From the studio location looking into the distance, we could see something shining brightly in daytime, which is the Noor Solar Power Station, home to the world’s largest concentrated solar power (CSP) plant. The light is emitted from the central tower, where the light reflected from thousands of sun-following mirrors converges.

Lunch in the City

In October, the midday sun was still scorching. The sunlight poured down on the mud-brick buildings and fortresses, dyeing the whole space in a vibrant reddish orange hue.

We stopped for lunch at Lakasbah Etoile Restaurant, located right opposite Kasbah Taourirt. As the Kasbah was under renovation, I didn’t go in to visit but just took photos from outside.

It’s such a relief after a long drive. From the restaurant, we could see the green patches in the distance by the river valley.

Aït Benhaddou

From Ouarzazate, we started the journey back to Marrakech, but first we had to visit Aït Benhaddou.

Nowadays, the ksar mainly serves tourism rather than residential purposes. The city residents mostly live on the other side of the Asif Ounila River in more modern houses. In 2011, a bridge was completed to connect the two sides, although when I arrived the river was pretty dried up.

The houses here cling directly to the cliff, packed together in all shapes and sizes. You need to prepare yourself for a pretty long uphill climb to reach the top, where the fortress is located. Since it’s not a residential area, most of the houses are souvenir shops selling metal crafts, paintings, or woven carpets.

On top of the fortress, you can see the whole city in one glance. It’d probably be better to stay for a day and come up here at sunset.

The driver let us visit a Berber carpet shop, the shop owner warmly invited us to have hot tea while giving a long speech about the carpets. Although we wanted to support, when we saw the price being way too high for the dusty sheep wool carpets, everyone shook their heads.

Journey Back to Marrakech

It’s told that on the same road the scenery will look different when you go and when you come back. The morning departure was already beautiful, but the return trip was just wow and left us speechless.

Our van again followed the National Route N9 to return to Marrakech. The scenery gradually changed: from the arid mountainous area, trees started to grow more densely and the soil turned darker brown. Sometimes we came across picturesque towns on the mountainside.

But the most beautiful part was definitely when the van was about to climb up and pass the summit of Tizi N’Tichka Pass, around the border between the two regions of Marrakech-Safi and Drâa-Tafilalet. The sharp bends one after another gradually took the van higher, and now the whole range of mountains sparsely covered with bushes was shimmering in the yellow hue of the late afternoon.

Below the pass was a deep valley. The neighboring mountain peaks looked like they were right outside the car window.

Nothing can capture the overwhelming feeling when the colossal works of nature were so close before my eyes.

The van seemed to be playing a tag game with the sun: sometimes it would slip into the shadowy side of the mountain, then run back towards the light casting long rays onto the road.

This scenery reminded me of Meteora - a whole valley below tinged with pinkish purple.

We had arrived at the stretch of multicolored mountains. The peaks appeared in lighter brown than the mid-mountain area. When we reached Toufliht, we could see the mountains being cut open, revealing three layers of reddish dark rock - truly one of a kind.

Anyway this road trip was really long. The sun was setting down slowly, it’s almost 7pm when the van finally reached the outskirts of Marrakech. The passengers got off one by one, while I stayed for a while longer before finally arriving at the Medina, closing another road trip in my life.