Moroccan Desert

The Moroccan Desert

The unknown, the dreamed, the fascinating, the mysterious. It also has its place in a lost and wonderful point of Morocco, where it seems that there is no such thing! However, a whole life is bubbling! Because Morocco is also the desert, a world that starts east at Jebel Siroua and west at the foot of the Anti-Atlas.

One of the fascinating parts of Morocco now appears to you, after Zagora. Adventure on foot, or dromedary, or maybe 4x4? All means are good to reach this unusual world of drought, stony, dunes and silence, ... An inexhaustible silence, an encounter with oneself and with nature! A change of scenery. A world where sand is king, where low or majestic hills form slippery ripples at your pace. Nothing else on the horizon! But, suddenly, the mirage is there an oasis waiting for you to relieve your thirst and refresh your trip.

Cross the desert, Chgaga, Foum Zguid, Tata, Foum el Hassan, the big dream, the great change of scenery. Stages of stages are installed there. realized! A true expedition that demands that we be well prepared to do it.

• Chgaga:

After Mhamid, about 60 km on a sandy track, to admire the high dunes of Chgaga, beautiful place in the middle of this great desert world!

• Foum Zguid:

After a stony and sandy track offering a rather sorry show we will arrive at Foum Zguid, administrative center in a beautiful palm grove.

Beautiful view of the oasis and fortified villages built throughout the Wadi Ziz.

• Mrimiah:

50 km further, you will reach this old caravan center in a beautiful palm grove, where you will find a Ksar Ouled Yayia and Zaouia founded in the first part of the seventeenth century.

• Tissint:

Great and beautiful oasis of five ksour crossed by the wadi of the same name. Inhabited by Chleuh and Harratine. It was a long time dependent on Ida Oublad, who in exchange, refrained from hurting their oasis. The palm trees of the region produce a remarkable variety of dates, very delicate taste and excellent conservation.

• Tata:

At 272 km from Zagora, large and beautiful oasis watered by three wadis from the Anti-Atlas and which meet to cross a cluse, at the buttress of Jebel Bani and join the Draa Valley .. This splendid oasis includes thirty or so ksour with pink rammed walls. The population composed in particular of Chleuh and Harratine, speaks a Berber dialect but also Arabic.

• Akka:

Chef-lieu of a beautiful oasis 341 km from Zagora, including a dozen ksour. Delicious variety of fruits grown in the region: dates, figs, pomegranates, peaches, hazelnuts, quince and grapes. We could not believe it. Akka, capital is a place well known as a stopover for those who venture beyond Mhamid! Do not miss the rock carvings, especially those of the Adrar n'Metgourine, one of the most beautiful sites of the bovidian era of southern Morocco. Images engraved on the sandstone, representing antelopes, two-wheeled carts, elephants, testify the passage from a world of hunters to a world of pastors and especially they remind us that there were then lakes in the Sahara

• Foum el Hassan:

Zagora is 427 km away. One could not help but admire the Ksar of Imi Ougadir, the most important of the oasis, serving collective attic Ait or Mribet. According to tradition, it was founded by Christianized Berbers, hunted in the 13th century. At 100km on the asphalt road we will meet Bou Izakarn. Countless opportunities for escapades are there! Near the palm grove of Tarjicht stands the agadir of Aïd Aïssa., Founded probably in the twelfth century at the time Almohade on a steep peak and difficult to access. Before Bou Izakarne, a small fortified village near a small palm grove, the Atlas oasis is the center of one of the oldest inhabited regions of Morocco where the population was one of the last to convert to Islam.

• Beautiful tours by tracks to the exuberant and magical oases: (from Goulimine)Track IRHERM

1.  TATA - AKKA (in the heart of a forest of date trees, fig trees, vineyards, pomegranates, peaches, hazelnuts.
2. TATA-TISSINT track: Very hard track Foum Zguid (where the track becomes normal again) - Mhamid (Palmeraie- Tagounite (a few kilometers away, the sugar loaf of Masmoda- Zagora (souk on Wednesdays and Sundays).