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Experience the real Morocco with expert guides
Top-Rated On Tripadvisor Trips for All Budgets Experience the real Morocco with expert guides
South Morocco is, quite simply, a geologist’s paradise. About 380 million years ago, during the Devonian period, the Moroccan Sahara Desert was the floor of a large prehistoric ocean. As the seawater receded, fish, plants and other ancient marine species became fossilised.
Through a lack of oxygen, tectonic movements, high temperatures and other natural factors, fossils and marble became embedded in huge boulders in Erfoud and the surrounding areas. This trip offers plenty of opportunities to view different types of fossils and ancient marbles. Large slabs of rock have a variety of individual characteristics in terms of age, raw material and colouring.
Along the beautiful Ounila Valley of coloured rock and soil, you visit the first geological site of this tour – phosphate rocks mixed with other minerals. In Asfla near Goulmima, you can find different cretaceous specimens and search for fossilised sharks’ teeth and other ancient marine species.
In the luxury desert camp in the Erg Chebbi dunes, there is some time to relax, ride camels and witness the spectacular sunset. After dinner in the camp, you can share an evening of music with the nomads around a campfire. The night’s sleep to absorb the day’s explorations is in a comfortable luxury tent near the big dunes.
Driving along a more southerly route you pass many Berber villages. You will stop at more mines about 10km from Alnif, and go off-road through Dra’a Valley’s unlimited palm trees, ancient Kasbahs and green oases along the ancient caravan route.
| No Days | Meals |
|---|---|
| All-inclusive | |
| Total price | |
| 2 Persons |
|---|
| 925 €* |
| 1850 €* |
| 3 Persons |
|---|
| 895 €* |
| 2685 €* |
| 4 Persons |
|---|
| 865 €* |
| 3460 €* |
| 5 Persons |
|---|
| 825 €* |
| 4125 €* |
| 6 Persons |
|---|
| 825 €* |
| 4950 €* |
Morning departure from your hotel/riad in Marrakesh at 8 o’clock and driving across the High Atlas mountains. At panoramic viewpoints, there will be opportunities to stop and take photos. As we start climbing the High Atlas mountains, we will stop to look down into a deep ravine. Over Moroccan mint tea, we will explain the original formation of the High Atlas Mountains and the significance between the sea-bed of long ago and the varying colours of the soil and rocks now.
After the Tichka pass, the highest in North Africa, we leave the main road and drive into the mountains. Passing by the Kasbah of Telouet, which once served as a palatial residence and the headquarters of the powerful Glaoui tribe, we will stop at the salt mines. The salt pans and the encrustations are clearly visible outside the mine.
Unfortunately, the whole Kasbah is now closed due to the damage caused by the earthquake that struck Morocco in September 2023. Nevertheless, it is still worth visiting the exterior with a local guide to discover its rich history.
Then the route crosses the Ounila Valley, which is spectacular for the colours of the soil strata and rock formations. Here there are many yellow phosphate rocks, mixed with other minerals.
At the end of the valley lies the Kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou, the oldest and most famous Kasbah in Morocco and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Here you will have lunch before climbing up to the top to admire the strategic positioning of the Kasbah on this outcrop.
Another 30 miles takes us to a hidden oasis of Fint outside Ouarzazate. You spend the night here in this traditional Berber village.
Morning departure at 8 o’clock to the Dades Gorge, passing the Oasis of Skoura, where numerous ancient kasbahs, some sadly in ruins, stand amongst the palm trees. We turn north, going off-road to Aït Toumert and later Aït Mraou via Boutaghar. Here, judging from the different herbs that grow, “azir”, “cheh”, za’atar”, “fliou”, “zoukeni”…., we can see that the soil is very salty. All of these herbs are to be found in the local markets and even as far away as Rissani. Minerals such as quartz scatter the ground.
Once passed the village of Boutaghrar, we come to caves where nomads live and tend their goats. We will stop to take tea with them.
Finally, we reach the main road again in the Dades valley and turn north to the gorges. Here you can walk and discover more about the local rock structures on the hillsides, and the pebbles along the river-bed. Later we return down the valley to our overnight accommodation.
After breakfast, you travel back to Boumalne at the end of the valley, and left and east into the the main road. After about another 90 kilometres, we turn left again back north towards the High Atlas mountains to visit the Toudgha gorges. The steep sides are sheer, 300 metres high and made of Bathonian (Jurassic) orange limestone.
You can walk through the gorges and your driver will fetch you to continue along the road until you reach Tamtattouchte. You return to spend in the night in the valley.
After breakfast, we follow the river downstream to Tinghir and turn east along the main road. Before reaching Tinjdad, you can see a spring, Lala Mimouna, on the left-hand side of the road where the water is acid to the tongue. Here there is a special rock which is cut into tiny pieces and burnt in incense burners.
After Tinjdad we reach Goulmima, a mining town, where we turn left and drive about 45 km towards Asfla where you will walk for about an hour and a half. Here you can find different cretaceous specimens being excavated. It is possible to have lunch with a local family.
Passing through Er Rachidia, we turn south again following the fault of the Ziz Valley. We turn left off the main road for about one kilometre to search for fossilised fish teeth and also part of their vertebrae. At Aïn El Aati, you will see a geyser shooting acid water high into the air. We drive the short distance to Erfoud via the Ziz Valley and the Oasis of Tafilalet. Dinner and the night are spent in Erfoud.
Erfoud is the most famous area for its fossil finds, although they are to be seen throughout the south in a broad south-easterly band as far as Tata. (The whole area around Tata has even more, and different, secrets to reveal!) First, you will go to the area where large slabs of rocks are being carved out of the mountains to be taken for working into furniture and artefacts. Surprisingly at present, there is no control over the numbers being exported. In the workshop, you can see the end products but more importantly, you will be given an explanation of the different species found in the rock.
South of Erfoud lies Rissani, the seat of the current Alouite dynasty of kings in Morocco. Here you can wander around the traditional souks and markets.
From there we skirt round the Erg Chebbi dunes to Khamlia, where you can enjoy a mixture of Gnaoua and Berber music performed by local people. As you go further round the dunes, you come to the lead mines of Mifis where kohl, famously used to enhance the beauty of Arab eyes, is worked. You continue to Tamerdanit, where you can have tea with nomad people.
You spend the night in a luxury desert camp with private bathroom, king-sized beds, beautiful Moroccan furnishings and lamps tastefully arranged to enhance your enjoyment of the silence and beauty of the dunes.
If you wake up early enough, you can watch the spectacle of the sunrise, when the colour of the dunes and the play of shadows are an awesome sight. The itinerary continues to the Dra’a Valley. At Messici, you will probably notice piles of minerals at the side of the road awaiting collection. They have been mined from the distant hills. You can collect handfuls of these stones for further identification at the end of the day!
At Alnif, there are more mines about 10 km from the main road. Lunch will be in Nkob. Later the journey takes us to Tansikht to drive along the ancient caravan route. Here we discover the real Dra’a Valley with its huge palm trees and ancient villages. At the end of the afternoon, we stop in Agdez for the night.
After breakfast, there will be a visit to Kasbah Tamnougalte where about thirteen families still live, whilst other parts crumble and decay. The road to Ouarzazate crosses the mountain pass of Tizi-n-Tinfifte (1660m) at Aït Saouen.
Once in Ouarzazate, we visit Taourirt Kasbah, originally the residence of the Pasha of Marrakech and a symbol of the feudal period of the Lords of the Atlas.
The return to Marrakech will complete the trip by the early evening.
