If you travel west to the desert from.Marrakesh, you'll undoubtedly pass Ait Bin Haddou, a kasbah on the UNESCO world heritage list and not far from the Morocco Hollywood town of Ouarazate.
You might even recognize parts of the kasbah, particularly the gates, from Game of Thrones. As the various signs often reminded us as we walked about, the film Gladiator was also shot here.
Whilst I tend to be cynical in places that attract tourists in drives, Ait Bin Haddou IS beautiful. It's situated in a wide river bed if the Ounila Valley with stunning views from the top. One can imagine it being used as an important stop for traders that made their way up from Sudan and various trans Saharan routes.
It is free to enter - not something you'd expect, since places like this in England would charge you. Do expect to be invited - or begged - to buy wares from various carpet, jewellery and art sellers who mark up their goods enormously for captive tourists. We bought nothing but fresh orange juice, which I have become addicted to in Morocco.
Whilst a small amount of families live and grow food around the kasbah, tourism is the mainstay for people who live in the area. Within the kasbah, you can pay a couple of dirham to see the living quarters where traditional berber kitchens with earth ovens sit next to more 'modern' rooms with a gas cooker, and goats and chickens mingle in small stables. Whether these were truly authentic or set up for tourists is anyone's guess but a couple of dirham doesn't break the bank.
We also paid to go inside a section that was being rebuilt, where you climbed inside a kind of tower that overlooked another part of the kasbah and some stables. It was so cool in there after the heat of the streets and very quiet as tourists cling to oft travelled routes and won't part with an extra few dirham to see interesting corners of the city.
The construction is mudbrick and straw and adobe, and although barely any of it is the same as it was in the 11th century when the site was originally built, traditional building methods have been used there for hundreds of years.
We stayed the night in one of the handful of camping grounds in the area. This one had a pool which was nice. I still had a cold so I slept on the sun loungers for a few hours. You can walk to the kasbah from these camping grounds along the river bed through olive groves and between small palm groves but we didn't as it was too hot.
That night we watched Irraritu's Babel as we hadn't seen it in many years. It's a film about cultural misunderstandings and the shots around the mountains are immediately familiar.
Please excuse the massive photo dump - it really was hard to choose what to share and as many of you know I'm doing this on my phone so it's not too easy to format as well as I'd like. I'm just worried I'll forget so I tend to write these up diary style every few days. If you're enjoying my travels, do leave a comment below and I'll get back to you when I can!
As we drive out of the area through the huge city of Ouarazate we pass a couple of the large film studios here. I imagine they're only worth the visit if you are into that kind of thing.
Draa Valley next!
With Love,Are you on HIVE yet? Earn for writing! Referral link for FREE account here