Ouarzazate Essential: The Ait Benhaddou UNESCO Ksar, the Atlas Corporation Film Studios, the Draa Valley Gateway, the Sahara Desert Approach, and the Cinema Capital of Africa
The Ouarzazate essential circuit covers Ait Benhaddou as the most UNESCO-significant single fortified village in Morocco and the most filmed single location in North Africa, the Atlas Corporation Studios as the largest film studio complex in Africa, the Draa Valley as the most dramatic palm grove valley in Morocco, and the Ouarzazate character as the Cinema Capital of Africa and gateway to the Sahara.
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Ait Benhaddou: The UNESCO Fortified Village
Ait Benhaddou (UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987), the most completely preserved single pisé earth ksar (fortified village) in Morocco on the Ounila River bank 30 kilometers from Ouarzazate, is the most architecturally dramatic single Moroccan Saharan village with the honey-colored earthen towers rising in the most vertically impressive single Moroccan vernacular architectural composition. The Ait Benhaddou ksar towers, built from the clay-straw pisé with the geometric decorative surface textures that are the most expressive single earthen architecture in the Islamic world, have formed the backdrop for more internationally distributed film productions than any single location outside Hollywood.
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Ait Benhaddou Film History: The Most Filmed Location in Africa
Ait Benhaddou film credits include Gladiator (2000, as the slave market of Zucchabar), Lawrence of Arabia (1962, as the Arabian desert), Jewel of the Nile (1985), Kundun (1997), Babel (2006), Game of Thrones (seasons 3 and 4, as the city of Yunkai), Sodom and Gomorrah (1962), and Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra (2002), making it the most diversely used single film location set in Africa in the range of historical periods and fictional worlds it has convincingly represented. The Ait Benhaddou film history is the most commercially productive single Moroccan UNESCO heritage site and the location that most directly generated the Ouarzazate film industry.
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Atlas Corporation Studios: The African Hollywood
The Atlas Corporation Studios (CLA Studios, the largest single film studio complex in Africa at 300,000 square meters), 6 kilometers from Ouarzazate city center, is the most commercially active single film production facility in Africa and the studio where the permanent sets for the Roman city, the Egyptian temple, the Oriental palace, and the Saharan village have hosted the most internationally distributed film and television productions from Africa. The Atlas Corporation Studios tour (the most popular single Ouarzazate tourist attraction after Ait Benhaddou) allows the visitor to walk through the most cinematic single standing outdoor film sets in Africa.
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Draa Valley: The Million Palm Grove
The Draa Valley south of Ouarzazate, the longest river valley in Morocco (1100 kilometers from the Tichka Pass to the Atlantic), contains the most extensive single palm grove in Morocco with 2 million date palms in the Agdez-Zagora section creating the most lush single oasis landscape in the Moroccan pre-Saharan zone. The Draa Valley palm grove, interspersed with the most architecturally dramatic single ksour (fortified village clusters) in Morocco and the most agriculturally productive single oasis date palm cultivation, is the most cinematically complete single Moroccan desert valley and the road most frequently traveled by the Ouarzazate-Zagora-Merzouga tourist circuit.
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Kasbah Taourirt: The Glaoui Architecture
The Kasbah Taourirt in Ouarzazate city center, the most extensive single Glaoui family kasbah complex in Morocco built by the Pasha Thami el-Glaoui (the most politically powerful single Berber leader of the French Protectorate period, the so-called Lord of the Atlas), is the most practically accessible single kasbah interior in the Ouarzazate region with the decorated reception rooms, the domestic quarters, and the artisan craft workshop quarter open to the visitor. The Taourirt kasbah restoration, supported by the UNESCO and the Getty Conservation Institute, is the most internationally funded single earthen architecture conservation project in Morocco.
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Ouarzazate Character: The Door of the Desert
Ouarzazate, the Tamazight Berber name meaning No Noise or the meeting place without confusion, is the most strategically positioned single Moroccan city at the junction of the High Atlas and the pre-Saharan zone, controlling the most historically significant single trans-Saharan trade route access point in southern Morocco. The Ouarzazate character combines the most film-industry-infused single Moroccan provincial city economy with the most dramatic single Atlas-to-Sahara transition landscape and the most geographically isolated single significant Moroccan city, creating the most unique single Moroccan small city travel identity.