Aït Ben Haddou

After a few attempts we managed to negotiate with one of the many many taxi drivers outside the bus station in Ouarzazate to take us to Ait Ben Haddou where he would wait for an hour before bringing us back.
We'd heard a lot about this place, an 11th century stopover for caravans along the trade route. It is included on pretty much every tour which goes through or close to the region so we thought we'd better check it out.
It is hard to tell how much is original after Unesco and hollywood have each done restorations but the place is suprisingly undeveloped with little tourist information and only the usual few souvenir stalls in the alleys, not necessarily a bad thing. It is a maze of mud brick buildings which has been used in the filming of a long list of movies.
After this short visit we headed south towards the Sahara, just short of the Algerian border.Read more