Today we left Marrakech and drove through the Atlas mountain range in Morocco which are defined as High Atlas, Middle Atlas and Sahara Atlas. These Great Atlas mountains form part of the mountain rage of the Maghreb in North Africa. We stopped several times along the way to admire the fantastic views.

The Atlas Mountains separate the Sahara Desert from the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.  We drove through the High Atlas mountains and normally there would be snow on the peaks at this time of year, however there has been a major lack of rain and warmer weather than normal.

View of the High Atlas mountains in Morocco.

We continued our drive up through the mountains eventually driving over the pass of Tizi n Tichka, where we stop for a few pictures of the amazing views before heading downward and stopping for lunch in Tisseldeï.

The view from the restaurant was beautiful and we enjoyed a great meal.

After lunch we continued our journey and stopped to take in the view of a traditional Berber town called Ait Ben Amer which is located on the hillside of a mountain. Berbers or the Berber peoples, as they are known, are a diverse and distinct ethnic indigenous group to North Africa: The Berbers predate the arrival of the Arabs in the Arab migrations to the Maghreb. They are indigenous to the Maghreb region, where they live in small scattered communities across parts of Morocco, Algeria, Libya.

We continued our drive until we reached the town of Ait Benhaddou which has an incredible ancient fortified Kasbah. It is listed as a Unesco world heritage site and was built in the 11th century for defence purposes.

The fortified kasbah is located on the slopes of a hill next to the Ounila River.

We walked along the riverbank before crossing the river bed using rocks and then headed through the entrance of the kasbah.

It is a well preserved medieval town which has been featured in many Hollywood movies, including Gladiator and Laurence of Arabia.

After visiting the kasbah we drove through the city of Ouarzazate, which is famous for being the filming location for many other Hollywood blockbusters and famous TV shows including James Bond – The Living Daylights, The Mummy and more recently Game of Thrones. Quarzazate is considered the Hollywood of North Africa. We ended our day in Quazazate. It was a long day of exploring the Great Atlas mountains and seeing some amazing sites.

“السفر هو العيش”.-Han Christian Anderson