The way into the desert
The High Atlas
The way into the desert climbs to 2,260 metres. In winter there is snow here.
The Tizi-n-Tichka is the pass that almost every southbound route crosses. At 2,260 metres you look back over the plain of Marrakech and forward into an entirely different country: barer, redder, wider.
In winter there is snow on the summits; in spring the almond trees blossom in the valleys. Along the way lie Berber villages of mud brick, often exactly the colour of the slope they cling to.
Below waits Aït Ben Haddou — the 17th-century mud-brick kasbah, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1987 and the backdrop to more Hollywood films than most actors. Shortly after comes Ouarzazate with its film studios.
