Trips

Mon., 2/14/11 - Valentine's Day - Ouarzazate to Marrakech

            Ouarzazate, the film capital of Morocco, is a new town created by the French to serve as an outpost for the French army to stop people coming from the south and entering Marrakech.  The city has continued to grow with new construction since the original Lawrence of Arabia movie was filmed here.  The city has become the "city of cinematography" and has provided sets for many (70 plus) movies and employment for local people.  Mohamed read us a lengthy list which included: Mummy 1 & 2, Jewel of the Nile, Cleopatra, Ten Commandments, Green Zone, Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, and Arabian Nights. 

            This morning on the way out of town we stopped to take pictures of Glaoui's kasbah, home of an early 20th c. governor of Morocco, first the back of it where servants entered and, later, the front approach. 

            We also took a look at the Atlas Studio that has filmed many movies and the CLA Studio that is used mostly for indoor TV sets.

Glaoui's Kasbah	Glaoui's Kasbah
Museum of Cinema	Movie studio
Movie studio	I came all the way to Morocco to take this picture!

            We stopped at the 12th c. caravansary, which is a group of kasbahs in Ben Ait Benhaddou.  Twelve families are living here and working on the restoration.  The kasbah we entered and climbed to the top of, had a courtyard for caravan animals, many small rooms for storing trade goods, and four lookout towers used as silos for wheat and barley.  Mohamed took us into a "house" kitchen where a woman made bread for us.  It was warm with a smoky flavor.  I think all 16 people in our group love Moroccan bread! 

            We climbed all the way to the top and looked out at a 360° panorama, which included the arena where scenes from the Gladiator movie were shot.  (Marge and I got the DVD of "Gladiator" from our library and where so pleased to see the arena bowl and the kasbahs in the background of several of the scenes.  We were there!)

Minaret - so different from those in Turkey	Ben Ait Benhaddou
Walking the plank to get there	Ben Ait Benhaddou
Ben Ait Benhaddou	Ben Ait Benhaddou
Electricity for Ben Ait Benhaddou	Always a stork's nest
Interior of room	Making wonderful bread
Ben Ait Benhaddou - view of arena where scenes for the "Gladiator" were shot	View from the top
In all the villages we have visited we have noticed the diamond shaped decorations on the doors.  This is another version of how to keep the evil eye from entering the house.  The windows usually have elaborate ironwork over them.  Mohamed told us these were put up for decoration and not to keep burglars out. You could spend a whole trip doing nothing but take pictures of the beautiful ironwork throughout the country.
Doors and ironwork on windows
We stopped for lunch at Tizi n Tichka looking at the snow atop the high Atlas Mountains.  We ate vegetable soup, a Moroccan omelet, turkey shish kabobs, rice and French fries, and an orange for dessert with our mint tea.  Another wonderful meal.
Another wonderful meal	View from the lunch spot
Herder and goats	View in front of the lunch restaurant

            We crossed the High Atlas at Col du Tichka pass - 2260 meters (7415 feet) high.  The landscape changed to smaller farm plots and villages and walnut trees and pine and cedar.  The road over the pass was at least 60 km of very narrow, windy road built by the French around 1930.  The colors on the mountainsides varied from green to red and brown and gray with snow at the top.  On the west side things became greener and the farms larger, but still small enough to be worked by hand or donkey.  We drove through a forest of pine and oak trees which is a government owned reserve for hunting wild boar - mostly by Spanish and Italian hunters.

Top of the pass
Another mountain road	Views of the mountains
Doing laundry in the stream	Hanging the laundry out to dry
Typical village with kids playing in the open, flat spaces	Mountain views
Cultivated land	Poor village

        We arrived in Marrakech by 5:30.  This city is 95% Berber and has 300 days of sunshine a year.  It is known as a "garden city" and has several large gardens and olive groves and many wide streets lined with palms or olive or orange trees. It is also a "museum city," which includes an Yves St. Laurent museum.

Marrakech city wall	Hotel El Andalous
Door to the dining room - the sill is raised so you have to step over it to get into the room	View from our room
The pool - the French and Germans were swimming daily - too cold for us

            After dinner we all walked a little down Mohammed 6th Ave.

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