Whenever I look at the photos of this location, it reminds me of a computer game called "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time"; why, I can't tell. Maybe it was the proximity of the desert, or the atmosphere of the cloudy day. What I do know, is that visiting this village was a great experience: meet Ait-Ben-Haddou.
I visited this amazing place while on a desert tour during my Moroccan holidays. It's one of those places that I no idea that I would see; and although I'm not (by far) an architecture admirer, this place seems magical. It feels you enter a time machine back to the past!
Ait-Ben-Haddou is a Ksar: a fortified village. It was a way of populations to have some protection against bandits and enemies, and they were frequent in ancient times. Inside the Ksar, you can also find a few kasbah, the fortified houses. And this is one of the best preserved fortified villages in Morocco, such that is even a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
I'm unsure if anyone still lives here nowadays, since most (if not all) villagers moved to a more modern village in the other side of the river bed; but pretty sure the guide told us there were still a few families left.
The village was an important spot in the caravan trails coming and going to the Sahara desert, but as civilization evolved its importance slowly faded away. Fortunately, the ksar is well preserved, and we can have a glimpse of how it was in its golden era. It seems to be a frequent passing point in most of the guided tours, but you can visit it on your own with a little plannig for sure, and avoid the crowds.
As we arrived to the modern city on the other side, a guide took us through the dry river bed, and off we went exploring.
And as we entered the narrow streets, I found out that the inside is as great as the outside.
So many details, and a labyrinth of narrow streets inside! During a small stop to admire some of the local art, we found out another reason on why this place is so popular: given how pitoresque it looks, it was used in a ton of movies and series! Lawerence of Arabia, Indiana Jones, and many more!
It's easy to understand why, right? Come on, just look at these views:
The cloudy day only made it better! It's so easy to imagine being in ancient times, and the photos don't do it due justice. Even some of the house materials are the same: adobe bricks, made using clay and straw and sometimes manure. These traditional material can help regulate the hot temperature that's usually felt, and they're incredible resistant.
The guide told us about the process to make them, but pretty sure I would butcher it, so won't go into details. And speaking of construction, I had another reminder of ancient times: a donkey being used as it was in the past, helping in the transport of heavy loads.
And no, it didn't seemed any staged scene for tourists! The bricks he carried were not the traditional ones, but I can guess there's not that much construction done as it was done ages ago.
There was a lot of scattered contruction sites inside. I can't tell if they were building better houses or just reatauring the ancient ones inside; whatever it was, it was clear that efforts were being made to preserve the village.
Following the narrow streets, we went up and up, and the ones that were fine with the scorching heat outside ventured all the way to the top of the Ksar, and enjoyed the amazing (and arid!) landscape view. I'm one of those lucky ones that doesn't suffer with heat at all, so off I went! It wasn't that big of a climb, truth be told, and there was no way I would miss the viewpoint.
From the top, there was a clear view of the modern village to where most of the habitants went, and the ksar surroundings.
I resisted the urge to destroy all these fake rock piles (don't know how they are called in english, but know they serve as markers, and definitely shouldn't be here), admired the view, and made my way back down.
A fun fact to wrap it up: although most of the village is well preserved and authentic, that first gate on the image bellow, the one a little more to the left, is actually fake! As you can see, it looks a little detached from the village, and for a good reason: it was created just as a movie setting, and it ended up not being torned down and stood there. Probably it will appear on a future movie or tv series! Because with this atmosphere, I do believe it wasn't the last time Ait-Ben-Haddou appeared on a screen!
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