Ouarzazate and the Atlas Studios

The Staging Town For The Draa, The Dades And The Sahara, Grown Around The Taourirt Kasbah And A French Garrison Post; Since The 1980s The Centre Of Morocco'S Film Industry, With Large Standing Sets Open To Visitors · Ouarzazate, Draa-Tafilalet

Ouarzazate is the staging post for the Moroccan south: a flat modern grid on the far side of the Tizi n'Tichka pass where the roads to the Draa, the Dades and the Sahara meet, and where almost every desert trip picks up fuel, cash, a hire car and the last full supermarket. Its real monument is the Taourirt Kasbah on the eastern edge of town, a rambling earthen pile built for the Glaoui family and partly restored, where you climb through small dark rooms to painted ceilings and a roof over the palmery. Its distinctive hook is film: since the 1980s the plains around the town have stood in for Egypt, Rome, Tibet and the Holy Land, and the studios on the Marrakesh road keep large standing sets that you tour with a guide. Close up they are dusty plywood, plaster and painted canvas, which delights some visitors and flattens others. The honest shape of a visit is this: Ouarzazate itself has little charm, most travellers sleep here rather than look at it, and the studios and the kasbah together are a half day at most.

Desert gateway town on the N9 south of the Tizi n'Tichka pass, with the Taourirt Kasbah on its eastern edge and the film studios on the Marrakesh road, Ouarzazate, Draa-Tafilalet, Morocco

The studios run guided visits through the day, roughly from mid-morning to late afternoon with a break around the middle of the day, in groups by language and lasting about an hour; you cannot wander the sets alone, and parts can be closed off when a production is filming, so confirm before driving out. The Taourirt Kasbah and the cinema museum opposite it keep similar daily hours, usually from around 09:00 until late afternoon, every day, with shortened hours in Ramadan - confirm the dates for your year. The town itself never closes: fuel stations, cash machines and the supermarket run long hours and some are open seven days. Getting here: Ouarzazate is roughly 4 hours by road from Marrakesh over the Tizi n'Tichka, which snows and occasionally closes in winter, with CTM and Supratours coaches and grand taxis from the station, and it has a small airport with Casablanca flights and a few seasonal international services - confirm schedules. Hire cars and 4x4 drivers should be booked ahead in spring and autumn.

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