The gazetteer
Every place we go
Twenty-one places across five regions. Each is ranked by how many of our itineraries reach it; open one to see which trips include it and on which day.
- Sahara & the gorges
- 4 places
- The Atlas
- 9 places
- Imperial cities
- 4 places
- Atlantic coast
- 2 places
- The Rif & the north
- 2 places
Photography11 of 21 places have a real photograph. The rest carry a generated placeholder, marked on the image, until real photography is in.
Sahara & the gorges
4 places
Generated imageIn 23 itinerariesErg ChebbiThe dunes rise 150 metres out of flat hammada and run to the Algerian border. You leave the road at Merzouga, cross the last stretch by camel, and sleep under canvas with nothing between you and the sky.
Generated imageIn 21 itinerariesTodra GorgeLimestone walls three hundred metres high close to within ten paces of each other. A shallow river runs the canyon floor, and the light only reaches the bottom for an hour either side of noon.
Generated imageIn 21 itinerariesDades ValleyWind has eroded the rock above the valley into the fluted columns everyone calls the monkey fingers. Below them the floor is green with poplars and small irrigated plots, and red-earth kasbahs are built straight into the slope.
Generated imageIn 20 itinerariesZiz ValleyAn unbroken corridor of date palms follows the river between sheer red canyon walls — the old caravan road south, and still the only green thing for an hour in either direction.
The Atlas
9 places
Generated imageIn 21 itinerariesTizi n'TichkaThe pass over the High Atlas at 2,260 metres, and the reason the south feels like another country. The road switchbacks for two hours through bare red ridgelines, and the weather changes at the top.
In 21 itinerariesAït Ben HaddouA fortified earthen village stacked against its hillside above the Ounila, continuously built and rebuilt in mud brick since the eleventh century. UNESCO-listed, and the backdrop to more films than anyone can list.
Generated imageIn 21 itinerariesSkoura & the Valley of RosesA palm oasis full of half-ruined kasbahs, the finest of them Amridil. North of it the valley floor is planted with damask roses, harvested by hand over three weeks in April and May.
Generated imageIn 20 itinerariesAzrou Cedar ForestThe Middle Atlas is nothing like the south — cool, green, and forested with cedars that have stood for centuries. Barbary macaques live in them, and the road to the desert runs straight through.
Generated imageIn 9 itinerariesOuarzazateThe door of the desert, and the point where the mountain road gives way to the kasbah country. The Taourirt Kasbah still holds the centre of town in rammed earth and geometric relief.
Day tripImlilA Berber village at 1,740 metres and the walking base for Toubkal, North Africa's highest peak. Walnut groves, terraced fields, and mule tracks that were the only road until recently.
Day tripOurika ValleyAn hour from Marrakech the air cools and the river appears. Cafés put their tables in the water, and the path climbs to the Setti Fatma falls above the village.
Day tripAgafayA stone desert half an hour from Marrakech — no dunes, but the same emptiness, with the High Atlas laid out along the horizon. Best at the end of the day.
Day tripOuzoud FallsThe highest falls in North Africa, dropping 110 metres in three stages through a red gorge. Wild macaques in the olive trees on the walk down, and boats that take you under the spray.
Imperial cities
4 places
In 21 itinerariesMarrakechThe red city, and the start of every southern road. The Koutoubia sets the skyline, the souks run for miles behind Jemaa el-Fnaa, and the High Atlas sits on the horizon with snow on it half the year.
In 20 itinerariesFesThe oldest living medina in the world, and still a working one — nine thousand lanes, no cars, and the Chouara tanneries dyeing hides in stone vats exactly as they have since the eleventh century.
Generated imageIn 10 itinerariesRabatThe capital, and the quietest of the imperial cities. The Kasbah of the Udayas looks out over the river mouth in blue and white, and the Hassan Tower has stood unfinished since 1199.
Generated imageIn 8 itinerariesVolubilis & MeknesThe best-preserved Roman city in Morocco, standing in an olive plain with its mosaics still in the floors. Imperial Meknes and the Bab Mansour gate are twenty minutes down the road.
Atlantic coast
2 places
In 10 itinerariesCasablancaThe commercial capital, and where most journeys land. The Hassan II Mosque stands out over the Atlantic on a platform above the water — one of the few in Morocco non-Muslims may enter.
In 4 itinerariesEssaouiraA walled fishing port with the trade winds blowing through it, blue boats in the harbour, and ramparts running straight out over the rocks. The pace drops the moment you arrive.
The Rif & the north
2 places
In 12 itinerariesChefchaouenThe blue city, painted lane by lane up the side of the Rif. It photographs well at any hour, but the light an hour before sunset from the Spanish Mosque is what people remember.
In 4 itinerariesTangierWhere the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic and Europe is visible across the strait. The kasbah looks down on both, and the city has been a crossing point for everyone for three thousand years.
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