Travels with V

Morocco

world travels

themes

🇸🇪 swedish

More results...

back

chapters

next

Snow and Sahara

Ouarzazate part one

Marrakech lies at the foot of the mighty Atlas mountains, the backbone of Morocco. And we climb them by bus, first across a stone-littered desert, then up among hills with yellow grass. Further up there’s less and less life on the brown-grey mountain slopes. There are some villages clinging to the mountain sides, and in the river canyons below there are small green patches, diminutive farming lands.

The bus keeps on climbing higher and higher up steep roads on low gear. Outside the landscape looks more and more like a scenery from the moon. Keeping an eye on the iPhone’s altimeter we realize we’re almost at 2000 meters over sea level as we pass below mountain tops covered in blinding white snow. There are actually some ski resorts up here, but this winter has been too dry so there’s not enough snow for skiing. Probably an effect of climate change. The bus keeps on climbing and finally reaches the top pass at 2250 meters o.s.l. Then it’s downhill again.

Our goal is Ouarzazate (or Quarzazate as it’s sometimes spelled) on the brink of the Sahara desert. It’s not a very old town, but it has grown very fast recently, and today it has the pulse of a modern city. Relatively many tourists find their way here, so there’s a variety of hotels to choose from. We unfortunately choose a big and almost empty lodge on a desolate back street too far from the city center. The rooms are cold as ice and there’s no hot water, so we leave quickly and rather panicky book a room at the fashionable Berber Palace. A switch we don’t regret, it’s a superb place, well equipped with several restaurants and a great bar where there’s a fire going in a large fireplace.

And the rooms are spacey and just perfect.

Ouarzazate is famous in the movie business. Quite a number of movies have been made here. The sunlight, the desert and the traditional red mud house kasbahs and villages have been attractive for the makers of productions like Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, Asterix, Ben Hur and Game of Thrones and many others. Most of the films are made in Atlas Studios.

Join us for a round trip in some of the studio’s amazing scenography, starting in a kasbah used in a couple of popular movies (and remember – it’s all fake!):

And here’s some more stuff that you might have seen in your favourite movies:

EGYPTISK PELARSAL, FRÅN ASTERIX & CLEOPATRA — EGYPTIAN HALL, FROM ASTERIX AND OBELIX: MISSION CLEOPATRA

FLYGPLAN, ANVÄNDES I DEN VILDA JAKTEN PÅ STENEN — THIS WAR PLANE WAS IN THE JEWEL OF THE NILE

EN BÅT, ANVÄNDES I ASTERIX & CLEOPATRA — A BOAT USED IN ASTERIX AND OBELIX: MISSION CLEOPATRA

FERRARI, EN AV FLERA SOM SPRÄNGDES I EN BONDFILM — A PLASTIC FERRARI, ONE OF MANY BLOWN UP IN A JAMES BOND MOVIE

Film makers have also often used other locations in the area, next we check out a gravel pit that mysteriously turned into the coliseum in Gladiator! We see a “ksar” and an oasis and also say hello to a man who lives with his family in a cave in the desert.