Zagora and the Draa Valley

The Palm Lined Draa Valley And Its Market Town, Historically The Staging Point For Caravans South Across The Sahara And Still The Gateway To Morocco'S Southernmost Desert · Zagora, Draa-Tafilalet

South of Ouarzazate the N9 crosses a pass, drops into the Draa valley at Agdz and then runs for roughly 95 km between a river and a wall of rock, through one continuous palm oasis broken by earthen kasbahs and ksour. This is the old caravan road, the way gold, salt and slaves moved between Marrakesh and Timbuktu, and the drive is the attraction rather than the town at the end of it. Zagora is a dusty one-street market town with a famous signpost, a hill above it with ruins on top, a silversmiths' quarter across the river at Amezrou, and the pottery and manuscript library of Tamegroute 20 minutes south. The single most useful thing to know is that the small dunes sold around Zagora as the Sahara are not the Sahara: they are a modest patch of sand on the valley floor, and the real dune seas are hours further on. Honest caveats: the river is often dry, the valley is punishing from June, and the two-day camel trip from Marrakesh is the budget version of a desert trip.

The Draa valley along the N9 south of Agdz to Zagora, with the palmeries and kasbahs strung along the river, Zagora, Draa-Tafilalet, Morocco

The road, the palmeries, the kasbah villages and the Timbuktu signpost are all public and open at any hour, free of charge. Zagora's market runs in the morning, with the big weekly souk filling the ground on its market day - confirm the day locally, because it governs whether the town feels alive or shut. The manuscript library and the pottery workshops at Tamegroute keep rough hours of about 9:00 to 12:00 and 14:30 to 17:30, usually closed Friday midday and often earlier in Ramadan, so go in the morning. Getting there: Zagora is roughly 165 km and about 3 hours south of Ouarzazate on the N9 via the Tizi n'Tinififft pass and Agdz, served by CTM and Supratours coaches and by grand taxi; the road continues about 95 km south to M'Hamid, where the tarmac ends. A desert night out of Zagora should be booked a day ahead rather than on the street.

Zagora and the Draa Valley on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos