Ouarzazate North: Skoura Palm Oasis, the Dades Valley Rose Festival, Kelaat M'Gouna, the Tichka Pass, and the High Atlas Crossing
The Ouarzazate north route covers the Skoura palm oasis as the most romantically atmospheric single oasis in the Ouarzazate province, the Dades Valley rose cultivation and the annual Rose Festival at Kelaat M'Gouna, the Tichka Pass as the most dramatic single road crossing of the High Atlas, and the Ouarzazate-Marrakech circuit.
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Skoura Oasis: The Palm Grove Kasbah Landscape
The Skoura oasis, 42 kilometers east of Ouarzazate on the pre-Saharan plain, is the most romantically atmospheric single oasis in the Ouarzazate province with the 1000-hectare palm grove (the second largest single palm oasis in Morocco after the Figuig oasis in the east), the Amerhidil Kasbah (the most beautifully proportioned single kasbah in the Skoura oasis, featured on the 50 dirham note as the most architecturally representative single Moroccan pre-Saharan building), and the Dar Ahlam luxury hotel in the most atmospherically refined single oasis accommodation in southern Morocco. The Skoura oasis walk through the palm grove and the canal network is the most directly sensory single oasis experience available within an easy day trip from Ouarzazate.
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Dades Valley: The Gorge and the Kasbahs
The Dades Valley east of Ouarzazate, cutting north into the High Atlas with the most dramatically eroded single gorge landscape in Morocco (the Dades Gorge at Ait Oudinar village, the most photographed single switchback road in Morocco), the Dades River kasbah towers, and the most geologically exposed single Cretaceous limestone formation in southern Morocco, provides the most diverse single day-trip landscape from Ouarzazate combining the oasis agriculture, the gorge geology, and the earthen kasbah architecture. The Dades Gorge road (the most photographically productive single mountain road in southern Morocco) switchbacks up from the palm oasis floor to the most panoramically complete single Dades Valley view.
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Rose Valley: The Kelaat M'Gouna Cultivation
The Kelaat M'Gouna Rose Valley (Valley of Roses), 116 kilometers northeast of Ouarzazate along the Dades Valley, is the most commercially important single rose cultivation zone in Morocco with the Damask rose (Rosa damascena) planted by the returning Hajj pilgrims from Persia in the 9th century providing the most extensive single attar of roses distillation industry in the Maghreb. The 4,000 tons of rose petals harvested each April-May by the Kelaat M'Gouna women produce the most fragrant single agricultural landscape in Morocco during the harvest season when the entire valley fills with the most intensely perfumed single rose aroma in North Africa.
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Rose Festival: The Annual Kelaat M'Gouna Celebration
The Kelaat M'Gouna Rose Festival (held annually in May since 1961 at the rose harvest peak), the most commercially important single agricultural festival in southern Morocco with the rose water distillation demonstrations, the rose product market (rose water, rose oil, rose cream, rose soap), and the most colorful single Berber procession in the Dades Valley, attracts the largest single annual tourist crowd to any event in the Ouarzazate province. The festival is the single best opportunity to purchase the Kelaat M'Gouna rose products directly from the cooperative at the most competitively priced single Moroccan rose product source.
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Tichka Pass: The Atlas Mountain Crossing
The Tizi n'Tichka mountain pass (2260 meters, the highest single paved road pass in Morocco), on the N9 highway connecting Ouarzazate to Marrakech (200 kilometers, 3 hours), crosses the most geologically dramatic single section of the High Atlas with the most spectacularly eroded mountain landscape in Morocco visible from the serpentine road. The Tichka Pass is the most strategically significant single land crossing of the High Atlas and the route that most directly connects the pre-Saharan south of Morocco to the Atlantic north, traversing the most geologically complex single Moroccan mountain range in the most scenically concentrated single road journey.
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Telouet Kasbah: The Glaoui Palace Detour
The Telouet Kasbah, 20 kilometers off the Tichka Pass road on the Ounila Valley floor, is the most dramatically positioned single Glaoui family palace ruin in Morocco and the most historically charged single pre-Saharan building, because the Pasha Thami el-Glaoui who ruled Morocco's south from here supported the French Protectorate and was the most politically controversial single Berber leader of the colonial period. The Telouet Kasbah decorated interior rooms (the most elaborately tilework-decorated single pre-Saharan room in Morocco still intact) are accessible through the crumbling ruin in the most dramatically collapsing single Moroccan heritage building.